Prime Market Garden Opportunity with Direct Sales Opportunities, Lincoln
Prime Market Garden Opportunity with Direct Sales Opportunities, Lincoln
Located four miles from the historic city of Lincoln, Doddington Hall is a well-established cultural destination seeking a market gardener to grow food on-site. Surrounded by an ambitious project to transform the surrounding farmland into a haven for nature, the available plot offers an exciting opportunity to establish a new enterprise while strengthening the site’s existing focus on nature, education, and community.
Doddington Hall, an estate dating back to around 1600, has been developed over the past 20 years into a hub for both the local community and visitors. Since taking on the property, owners Claire and James have developed a diverse range of attractions, including a farm shop, bike shop, cafés, a restaurant and bar, as well as retail outlets, events, and educational activities.
Claire is passionate about environmental land stewardship and is leading a project to turn the intensively farmed surrounding arable fields, grazed grassland and woodland into a thriving natural landscape through the ‘Wilder Doddington’ project. Through habitat creation, the reintroduction of key species, and natural regeneration, Wilder Doddington aims to support biodiversity whilst promoting opportunities for education and connection for the community with the natural environment. In time, this will offer valuable opportunities for a market gardener to connect food production with wider environmental and community goals.
The available site is centrally located within the village of Doddington, with Wilder Doddington fields bordering its eastern edge. It benefits from good road access, some existing storage buildings, and potential for further infrastructure development. The soil is of good quality and was previously used for a pick-your-own strawberry offering with great success.
Doddington Hall attracts a high volume of visitors, providing excellent opportunities for direct sales. There is also an engaged volunteer base connected to the estate, its gardens, and the Wilder Doddington project. In addition, a wide range of on-site skills and expertise could support the establishment of a new market garden. Claire and James are well connected within local and national networks focused on landscape recovery and local food systems, and are keen to support a grower who shares their vision.
This opportunity is best suited to a grower with experience, a strong commitment to sustainable food production, and a passion for environmental stewardship, who is ready to establish and grow a successful enterprise.
Images courtesy of Schöffel Country
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