LOW HULLOCK HOWE
BAMPTON
ENVIRONMENTAL FEATURES
The farm contains a diverse range of habitats including woodland, scrub, upland streams, lowland drains, wet flushes, grasslands, rough grazings and meadows, as well as hedgerows and walls.
GEOLOGY & SOIL TYPE(S)
Ordivician, the lower Borrowdale Volcanic Group. There is not much topsoil; what there is takes a lot of digging. There are scattered peat deposits.
FAUNA
Lapwings are nesting (3 prs a year) 1000’s of wintering finches (Redstarts, Yellowhammers, Curlews).
Hares, badgers, foxes and there is a Golden Eagle on Bampton Common (the reduction of stocking levels has resulted in less dead sheep meat for the eagle to eat).
FLORA
Hay meadows (traditional)
Three different types of orchids: Common spotted orchid, Butterfly orchid and Fragrant orchid.
© Copyright 2007
ARCHAEOLOGY
The Walters have re-planted hedgerows in partnership with the National Park, and have undertaken hedge banking within the ESA (100 metres). They have also restored some hedgerows (c. 500 metres) with the RSPB.
DRY STONE WALLS
There are a lot of small fields on Low Hullock Howe; there are only two or three fields above 10 acres.
The maintenance of dry stone walls is the most consuming time challenge on the farm.
VERNACULAR BUILDINGS & FEATURES
There is a traditional range of buildings at the main steading; there are a number of traditional barns which are also used for crop storage. At Millcraggs there is a steading; a recently rebuilt house and two stone barns.
INCOME AND PAYMENTS
Headage payment for fattening livestock allowed for severely disadvantaged areas like this one. The Single Farm Payment is geared to the productivity of the land and, therefore, hill farmers are disadvantaged against lowland farmers. The RSPB partnership produces land management help in kind with gates and walls.
There is also:
Hill Farming Allowance
The Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme
30% of income is from livestock
70% from agri-payments
The Cumbria Fells and Dales Leader + programme is based at Voluntary Action Cumbria and is part-financed by the European Agriculture Guidance and Guarantee Fund of the European Union and the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs. This project is part of a trans-national project with Gévaudan Leader + Programme, Lozère, France.
© Copyright 2008 Cumbria Hill Farms