From farm to firewood at Humberton
Exactly a century ago today, nineteen year-old ‘Tut’ Sowray was walking his family’s stock twenty miles from Lamb Hill, between West Tanfield and Masham, to set up on their then newly-tenanted farm at Humberton, near Boroughbridge, where the fourth generation to farm here, David Sowray, farms today with his wife Rachael, albeit now with several other strings to their bow, and the fifth generation too.
When ‘Tut’ (real name, William Herbert Sowray) arrived, the story goes - told by his son Stephen, David’s father – ‘there was snow on the ground and it was so cold they had to break the ice on the water tops to feed the cattle’.
There’s a certain beautiful irony that, one hundred years on, heating and providing warmth, so instantly needed back then is now a major part of the family’s overall business, with David and Rachael’s ongoing success story, The Log Shed.
‘I still consider myself a farmer, it’s what I love doing most,’ says David, who is also known as ‘Tut’ by family and friends. ‘Sat on a tractor, doing jobs like drilling, you can get your thoughts straight. The arable side of the business here at Humberton is important and contributes to the overall income, and it’s what lets us do everything else.
‘Now, with The Log Shed, we’re encouraging people to support British forestry as well as farming. Nearly all of our firewood is locally sourced within thirty-or-so miles from estates and woodlands, and it is the best you can get because of what we do with the product here and what we have invested in doing so.
Stephen tells of how the Sowrays started at Humberton with his grandfather Robert, followed by William Herbert ‘Tut’, followed by himself and now David.
‘It started off as a proper mixed farm. My grandfather and father farmed everything, as everyone had in those days. We grew potatoes, sugar beet, wheat, barley, oats, and had sheep, cattle, pigs and poultry, laying hens. Over the years we cut back in stock, ploughed out the grassland and became almost all arable.
David and his brother Jonathan farmed together until three and half years ago and for many years they had pigs as well as their arable cropping.
‘The pigs went four and a half years ago,’ says David. ‘Since that time, and with the growth of The Log Shed business, plus our other businesses including fencing posts, a product called Hay Caps and Rachael’s terrific Boroughbridge Equestrian centre, we’ve kept our farming involvement as simple as possible.
‘During my tenure we’ve bought the farm from the Crown Estate. That was 10 years ago, and we have made considerable investments since then in the other parts of what is today’s overall business.
‘We now grow winter wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape and occasionally some beans. The wheat and barley is all for feed and we sell it to our neighbours who have livestock.
‘It’s not been a bad harvest this summer, we’ve had a decent average yield, but last summer was better for us. Our problem, probably the same as many, was it finished too quickly, having ripened two weeks early. The wheat had a bit too much heat. We can’t complain too much, but it had potential which I don’t think it quite achieved. We finished harvest by August 2.
The Log Shed started 20-plus years ago, but David points to Rachael’s influence having transformed it from what it was then, to a modern, state-of-the-art business that you’ve only to take in their YouTube video to see that it is now probably one of the most professional set-ups around.
‘We were rumbling along doing a few logs, but when Rachael began marketing it she turbo-charged it.
‘We produce British, and mostly Yorkshire-grown, firewood,’ says Rachael. ‘We champion the British side of our business. It’s about other farmers and landowners like us, and those who harvest and trade timber.
‘Covid accelerated this. Everyone was at home, and it was freezing. Fortunately for us, just before that, we’d put a huge investment into expanding our business with brand new machinery because we pride ourselves on providing the best firewood, kiln-dried to the exact specification needed and cut exactly as everyone wants it, with clean, good sized logs in hardwearing bags and we deliver nationally.
‘We now sell not just to private individuals and businesses; we’ve also moved more on to the corporate side – including providing farm shops and specialist outdoor centres that use woodfired saunas, hot-tubs and to fire their overall heating.
‘All of our waste wood, not appropriate for the log business, powers the biomass boilers that heats five homes, including our own farmhouse, and the kilns – and the boilers dry all the logs, and the farm’s grain. All the shavings go towards bedding the horses.
David says the Hay Caps came about as a business idea when he saw them in Australia.
‘As The Log Shed business grew we were storing more straw outside. We’d tried covering them with a tarpaulin but that didn’t work. We imported Hay Caps for a couple of years. We’ve now manufactured them here, on farm, for over 10 years. We’ve made them a bit more durable and now sell them all over Europe. Power stations using straw are now using them too.
David has found that one business often leads to another. When he found fencing posts were only lasting a shorter life than they should he became a stockist of Octopost creosote fencing.
‘It’s from Sweden and you can’t produce it in Britain. The specific problem was when arsenic was no longer allowed in tanalised fencing it meant that wires lasting 35 years were on posts lasting four. It’s very slow grown redwood whereas most British fencing is softwood. We’ve sold it for 10-12 years all over Yorkshire and it’s guaranteed for 25.
Rachael’s Boroughbridge Equestrian business now sees part of the farm down to grass. It is another professional setup that includes every element of livery, including DIY, part, full and bespoke.
‘Our customers love it,’ says Rachael. In the last ten years we’ve invested in a lot of facilities and we’ve just opened a retirement barn.
‘We’re hiring out a lot more, for show jumping, dressage and a working hunter course. We have a cross country course and a new pleasure ride which has been really popular. In the last couple of days we’ve had visitors from Scotland and Birmingham. The lady that came from Scotland returned yesterday for just a few hours. It’s incredible. We didn’t set off thinking that would be the case.
Stephen looks on at what is happening today with great admiration.
‘I have such respect for what David and Rachael are doing. I was a farmer and that was it.
David and Rachael are building something for the fifth generation at Humberton, their children – twins Henry and Florence (10) and George (9), and are also full of praise for their team.
‘Everybody does everything here,’ says David. ‘The Log Shed lads will go and help the horse girls, or work on farm, or make Hay Caps. We’re very dedicated, constantly looking at ways to improve and we love talking with our customers.