Sproxton Hall Farm, near Helmsley: Floral tribute to the sights and sounds of summer

Putting on a show in the countryside during summer isn’t just about agricultural shows, many farms harvest people as gainfully as they hope to grow crops and livestock with campsites, holiday accommodation of all kinds, open farms and, in the case of Henry Wainwright and his family at Sproxton Hall Farm, near Helmsley – flowers, and a novel idea that Henry, in his mid-twenties, describes as ‘possibly the best beer garden in North Yorkshire’.

The Flower Belt features twelve acres of glorious technicolour every summer and is home to events such as ‘sound baths’ and yoga with a bar in the middle of the flower fields open every day during the school summer holidays.

‘Sound baths are where you lay on a mat and taken on a spiritual journey with music, gongs and chimes. If people want to come and do it in the middle of our flower fields they are more than welcome,’ says Henry who came up with the idea of The Flower Belt after being knocked back over a wedding venue.

‘We’re in our fifth season and it’s going really well. We host music nights every Friday and Saturday evening through eight weekends in summer and all ages, including families, come from far and wide for our unique experience and to pick flowers.

‘My dissertation at Harper Adams was about having a wedding venue but it wasn’t happening, so as an ad-hoc thing I thought we’d try a field of flowers while we waited, which never came to be, and was probably not a bad thing the way it’s all turned out.

‘Right now, it’s the wildflowers in bloom, including poppies, next week it will be the sunflowers, we have 250,000 tulip bulbs that flower earlier in the season. Phacelia is the first to show in main season with its purples, at the moment it’s cornflowers of yellows and whites; then three different poppies of orange, red and pink followed by sunflowers. Our Flower Belt produces great colour all the way through to October.

Henry says that The Flower Belt is all about putting on the best possible show.

‘We choose to reseed the wildflowers every year, you don’t have to, but we want to make sure our customers see a great show. We have our own flower mix of perennials and annuals. It’s important because year on year you are always going to lose a certain percentage.

‘The Flower Field has become as much about the experience of enjoying your time in a field of colour as it is about the ‘pick your own’ we offer.

‘When we started we were the only ones offering PYO flowers but since we started the bar, pizza oven and music in our stretch tent in the middle of The Flower Belt have brought people from afar. That’s mainly because of the events we have on. We don’t charge for entry, so people are willing to come over for a ride out, take a look and have a great time.

‘This is our third year running the bar. We have 35 staff over the main eight weeks of the season. We are open every weekend during the whole season for coffee. We have university students who run the bar, serve pizza, coffees and ice creams and wrap flowers. They’re all keen because they want to work all the hours they possibly can so that they can go back to college with money.

‘We are very supportive of local businesses. Our draught ales are from Helmsley Brewery; Ryburn Ice Cream of Helmsley is popular, Hunters of Helmsley supply cakes and sausage rolls; with Wold Top Brewery of Hunmanby supplying the IPAs and lagers.

Henry farms with his father Mark. The Wainright family has been at Sproxton Hall Farm since his grandfather took it on as a tenant in 1962. Andrew latterly took it on in his own right when he was offered the opportunity to buy the farm, which then ran to 200 acres.

‘I don’t know what he’d quite think to what’s going on today, but I hope he’d be pleased,’ says Henry.

‘Grandpa would always drive the combine, that was the deal he and dad had. He was more towards livestock and enjoyed his cattle, we also had 300 ewes, but apart from a suckler herd of 20 Belted Galloways cows, a bull and pigs on a bed and breakfast contract we largely phased out from commercial cattle and sheep farming when he passed.

‘We now farm across 1000 acres with one-third tenanted from Duncombe Park; one-third contract farmed and the other third owned.

Henry says The Flower Belt has added a new strand to the farm’s income.

‘It’s mainly down to myself and dad on the arable. Our farming business is a mix of contributions from arable, cattle, pigs and The Flower Belt. We grow 850 acres of crops with about 400 acres of winter wheat including first wheat varieties Champion and Dawsum which we started harvesting last week.

‘Our oilseed rape crop failed in winter when it was too wet, but our winter barley harvested in late July went well. We grew 150 acres each of winter and spring barley. We’ve also grown spring beans this year and our next-door neighbour has a field or two of potatoes.

‘The barleys will usually yield 2.5 to 3 tonnes an acre, with the wheat normally coming in around 4 tonnes per acre. It has been looking well overall, but the stonier, brashier stuff on land in Duncombe Park is not yielding as it should be. We are pleased with it on the heavier going land. I think we will struggle to reach 4 tonnes this year as some of the land has droughted off.

Henry says his dad is the one mainly responsible for the cattle.

‘The Belted Galloways were grandpa’s idea. He got himself a few Belties after we’d thinned out the cattle. We’ve taken it on from his initial five. It’s not technically a pedigree herd as our bull hasn’t the pedigree paperwork. We took on more to graze on our land at Duncombe Park after we finished with sheep.

‘Our pigs are generally looked after by a couple of farm workers. They come as weaners and go as fat at 100-110 kilos.

The Flower Belt Helmsley is managed by Henry’s sister Lily, currently studying Fine Art at Newcastle University. Lily is following her mother Fiona’s footsteps, who combines her work as a portrait artist with assisting her husband and son.

Henry says the latest addition to the business, The Flower Belt Harrogate, which started three weeks ago, shows there is potential.

‘Another farmer at Markington, has come on board. We supply everything needed and run their socials. We own and run their social media. I’m in close contact.

If other opportunities arise I would look at expanding further.

Running events isn’t new to Henry.

‘I’ve just given up as chairman of Helmsley YFC where I’ve been chairman the last four years. For years I was involved when we ran the Ryedale Show After Party. I’d just like to say well done to the Ryedale District women’s Tug o’ War team who won the national title last week.