The Old Estate office is situated in the grounds where the original Kermincham Hall once stood. Kermincham Hall with its deer park has long been associated with the Mainwaring family. A grand hall was built by Roger Mainwaring in 1718. By marriage the family moved back to their other seat of Peover so the hall became a tenant farmers residence and fell into disrepair and was finally demolition.
The Old Estate Office was originally an agricultural building in the deer park wall, probably a shelter or isolation box for livestock. The field it stands in is called “Hall and Gardens” on the old tithe map and would have been a grand garden at time.
Since moving to Deer Park farm we converted the farm to organic. We had been involved with conventional agriculture and started to question the effects that chemical inputs were having on the soil, water, wildlife and ultimately the health of livestock and humans who consume products from conventional farming. Having a young family concentrated the mind and we wanted to give them the best chance to grow up in as natural environment as possible.
The farm is currently down to grass which is grazed by a small herd of black Aberdeen Angus cattle.
Hay or haylage is made in the summer when conditional allow to provide food over the winter when grass growth stops. The farm has in the past grown organic vegetables and carried a flock of sheep.
We planted a small orchard with apples and a few damsons. There are several apple trees of the local variety “Withington Welter”. Welter refers to the large size of this apple which is big enough to make a pie from a single specimen. We produce a small number of bottle of Organic Apple juice each year from the orchard.
Twenty years of farming organically has seen a big increase in our farm wildlife. Skylarks, Lapwings, Oyster Catchers have all reared chicks on our pastures. If you are really lucky you may see the Hobby, Little Owl and on an evening stroll, the Barn owl. In 2017 and 2018 we rung (so they can be recorded) four barn owls and a pair of Little owl chicks.
