Meet your hosts
Paul and Sam are both from farming backgrounds and met at Agricultural College, returning home to the family farm in 2000. Since 2006, they have lived at Chigborough, running the farm and Trout and Coarse fishery, on the Northern edge of the Blackwater Estuary in Essex. Chigborough Farm is around 130 acres in total, 50 acres of which is water primarily used for coarse and trout fishing. There is also a smoke house and a small tea rooms on site. They've also been developing some of the old farm buildings, and hold a Farmer's Market every six weeks in the farmyard.
Wildlife & Environment
The Farm is part of many environmental schemes (HLS, ELS, LEAF MARQUE) and incorporates wild flower mixes, wild bird seed mixes and grass margins on many of the fields. It is close to a quiet and mostly undisturbed Nature Reserve (Wildlife Trust) with a similar habitat of water, pasture and woodland. Wildlife is abundant, with many rare migrant birds spotted either here or on the Wildlife Trust land nearby.