The Harrison Spinks Farm, Bolton Percy: ​Liam rests assured with bedtime story

Taking the weight off your feet by providing the right bed for a good night’s sleep is how everything is grown at The Harrison Spinks Farm, Bolton Percy.

This isn’t a farm producing food. Its arable crops and flock of sheep provide the excellent quality produce from sustainable sources for mattresses.

The Spinks family from Cawood own Harrison Spinks, the bed manufacturing company based in Leeds, and bought Hornington Manor in 2009, which is when Liam McPartland joined his father Gary, who was then the farm manager, before subsequently taking the reins in 2018.

‘We grow hemp and flax and have a flock of 120 breeding ewes of which 40 are Wensleydales,’ says Liam. ‘Simon Spinks wanted to grow natural fillings to replace memory foam, because they are better for the environment, for the sleeper and overall a better filling for a mattress. What is used wicks away moisture from the sleeper, keeping you cool in the summer and warm in the winter.

‘Hemp is in every mattress we make. Flax is in the majority. Each mattress can include any combination of wool, hemp and flax dependent on the mattress.

Liam says such is the demand for Harrison Spinks beds the company purchased further farmland and also has arrangements with several growers of flax and hemp.

‘Here at Hornington Manor’s 300 acres the farm is split 50/50 between grassland and arable land. Out of the 150 acres of arable 33.5 acres are down to grass margins and wild bird strips through stewardship. Across the whole farm we are operating a combination of Mid-Tier stewardship and two SFI schemes. We also have 67.5 acres of arable land at The Grange at Ryther purchased in 2021, which also comes under me.

‘Our crop rotation starts with flax and then hemp, we then go into three or four years of legume fallow mix or herbal ley. We are certified organic and have been a practicing organic farm for years. We’ve never sprayed the hemp and have only ever sprayed a flax crop once.

Both Liam’s main crops of hemp and flax are spring sown.

‘The soil wants to be warming up by the time they are sown. It is getting earlier and it is now the second week in April that we will drill it.

‘We’re largely on medium-heavy land and the crops want a nice, pliable seedbed in the spring. We tickle it with a power harrow by a contractor. I then go in with a combi drill, rolling it nicely, with a bit of moisture.

‘Flax is still quite soft in its first few weeks but is hardier than hemp, which is finicky in its first weeks, which is strange given that it then grows into this 10-12ft strong plant. That’s because as soon as it gets growing it creates a canopy which smothers out all the weed, and why there’s no need for further applications of herbicide.

‘We usually cut the flax between mid to the end of July with a drum mower leaving it laid out on the ground; the hemp is usually cut at the end of July and beginning August with

our specialist multi bar cutter which cuts at ground level, and at 3 ft and 6ft, cutting it into lengths. It is then left to ret.

‘Hemp and flax need water and bacteria to break down the glues within the plant to remove the outer skin, which is the fibre we want for the mattresses, we call it the shiv. It’s a 4-6 week period from the beginning of August to mid-September incorporating tedding, drying, gathering into swaths and baling.

As hemp is part of the cannabis family it is grown under a licence that ensures its chemical compound is kept under strict control and Liam says that this is called a

stalk and seed licence.

‘That means you can either harvest for stalk like we do, or the seed or both. The flower is where the potential drugs would come from. Our crop is only just starting to flower when we cut it. We only want it for the fibre, from the stalk, as early as we can.

Liam visits their other Harrison Spinks growers who don’t necessarily operate the same rotation.

‘Such is the popularity of Harrison Spinks beds that only 25 per cent of what we need can be grown on our own farms. I go out to the other growers and agree next year’s crop with our other farmers.

‘Our growers are often on a conventional rotation and hemp is a fantastic break crop for them. Their premium yielding wheat crops always come after a hemp crop.

‘We had one chap further down south who grew 250 acres of flax for us as well as growing it for seed for Limagrain. That was a good combination and we bought the straw from him.

Liam is well respected for the quality of Hornington Manor’s Wensleydale sheep, especially in the show ring and notably at the Great Yorkshire Show.

‘We’ve 40 Wensleydale ewes that will lamb next spring and also have 80 North of England Mules, plus 10 Angora goats producing mohair and three alpacas. When they are all clipped their wool is mixed together to become the Hornington Clip and it goes to the bed factory in Leeds.

‘We made the decision to go into Wensleydales in 2016 after deciding we wanted a rare Yorkshire breed, a wool breed, a quality lustre wool. We bought a flock of 20 shearling ewes and an unrelated tup. Our first showing year was 2019 and we were placed, but since then we’ve had three breed champions at the Great Yorkshire Show.

‘This year we had reserve breed champion and we’ve had a great season with a series of interbreed titles at Otley, North Yorkshire County and Ryedale and all with Daisy, a hogg in full wool. After Ryedale Daisy was clipped, that’s when ram lamb Larsson took over, winning at Ripley. It took my breath away, winning with two different sheep.

‘We do what I think is a really great thing. We work in partnership with British Wool. There’s a scheme called the Traceable British Wool Scheme that has a red crook logo. With that we have traceability, so we can trace every bale of processed wool back to the farm where it was grown on as we use different breeds of sheep for different ranges of mattress. Wensleydale wool for our Somnus range. The John Lewis range champions Welsh Hill Sheep and Herdwick. The Dreams collection champions Swaledales.

Liam’s excited about perhaps picking up another title.

‘There is a league based on points accumulated at shows in the season and we are in pole position.

Liam works with self-employed local girl Hannah Dean from Acaster Selby.

‘I run it as my own farm and I’m very lucky to have the lifestyle I have. I love the countryside. We planted 3 kilometres of hedge in the winter of 24-25 across both sites and we won the Vet Partners Sustainable Sheep Farm of the Year.

Liam has two children Mia (13) who helps with the showing of the Wensleydales and George (9) who helps get them ready.