Former auctioneer and breast cancer sufferer Rebecca Mayhew tells Sarah Hardy about Old Hall Farm in South Norfolk where they produce everything from pink fizz to raw milk!
Rebecca Mayhew is a whirlwind of a woman, juggling two teenage children, a 500-acre farm, a farm shop, a café, a vineyard, and lord knows what else! She’s clearly thriving on it all!
For a start, Rebecca is very clear in her views – she’s all about animal welfare, producing and serving up the best possible produce to her customers and safeguarding her land.
She knows her mind and has a firm vision for Old Hall Farm, a lovely place at Woodton, just off the Norwich to Bungay Road.
Rebecca, now in her 40s, was born in the Middle East and grew up in London and Gloucestershire. After meeting her husband Stuart, she moved to Norfolk, where his family has been farming in Woodton since the 1940s. She transitioned from her role as a land agent and auctioneer at Durrants to full-time farming in 2017.
Her decision to make this change stemmed from her cancer diagnosis in 2012. Rebecca recalls that she initially visited her local GP for a different issue but was quickly referred to the hospital, where she received a startling breast cancer diagnosis shortly after the birth of her second child, Isobel, sister to Jack.
She is full of praise for her care in Norwich, saying she had the ‘full set’ of treatments including a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy over a two year period. She also received the Herceptin drug through a drip every three weeks for a year to reduce the risk of the cancer returning and now has yearly check ups.
She does think her hectic lifestyle and stress levels contributed to her illness and says it was a trip to Scotland that made her think about a different way of living. Whilst staying on a farm, she fell in love with some Jersey dairy cows, her ‘goddesses’ as she likes to call them, and their first one, Freya, was soon bought! This tied in with buying the adjoining farm site at Old Hall, and the changes began – the farm went from intensive pig farming to being a fully mixed one with pasture-fed cattle.
Rebecca explains she started selling farm produce such as milk and eggs via an honesty box but this was quickly outgrown, as were vending machines and a Portakabin. So the decision to renovate and extend existing farm buildings to create a shop and café was easily taken.
Now the business is simply flying. Using the farm’s own raw milk, they produce their own ice cream, cream, yoghurt, butter, and milkshakes and she’d love to create her own cheeses… “I love cheese so it is definitely in our plans”, she says.
From the seven and a half acre vineyard, planted five years ago, they also have several wines, including their Boudicca Blush Brut, a sparkling rose, and, Rebecca explains £10 from each bottle sale goes to the NNUH Boudicca Appeal which is raising money for an one-stop breast cancer screening and diagnosis clinic.
All products are sold both online and at the packed farm shop which also stocks other high-quality locally-produced goodies from Candi’s chutney to Crush granola. The café, which seats 50 inside and a lot more of the sunny patio and grass areas, opens daily, with special evening events often staged.
There are three full time chefs, including head chef Nathan Horsfall and the menu makes much use of the produce from the farm which also has its own market garden which is yet another area Rebecca has her eye on!
Then there are the animals… There are goats for ‘fun’, an emu, peacocks, sheeps, pigs, cattle – and Rebecca is keen to create a rare breeds area with sheep, pigs and Suffolk Punches.
She would also like to develop some remaining redundant farm buildings and establish an education centre, helping local students learn more about regenerative farming.
And the couple are rebuilding the original Old Hall which they plan to make their own home. “I want a really big kitchen diner so we can stage cookery demonstrations and diners”, she adds.
Rebecca pays great tribute to all her staff (there are 24 full time people plus seasonal casual staff) and is also grateful to leading local chefs such as Galton Blackiston of Morston Hall Hotel and Greg Anderson of Meadowsweet in Holt, who use and promote her produce. She is now looking forward to Christmas, with lots of hampers, packed with goodies, on offer, and the café is a great venue for staff parties, too.
“Yes, we like to be busy,” she laughs. “It’s too late to stop now!”
www.oldhallfarm.co.uk