The existing buildings of High House Farm were built in 1844 on the site of a smaller farmstead. 

In 1887 the farm was owned by Mr John Clayton (of Clayton Street fame in Newcastle upon Tyne). The Urwin family bought the farm in 1969.

The farm has had an illustrious past! In 1887 it was farmed by Mr George M Angus, who won a Champion Prize for the Best Managed Farm.

The judges were impressed with the condition of the farm, even though it was situated in an “unfavourable” position.

We now have a 200 acre “non-intensive mixed farm”, with arable and livestock.
We run a small herd of beef-breeding cattle, with approximately 10 cows, 1 bull and 10 calves. We have a spring calving (April – May) each year.

We also have approx. 150 head of North of England country mule sheep, with ewes, 5 tups (male sheep) and a number of lambs. Lambing time is March to April each year and usually lasts a very busy two weeks! 

Our arable land is divided into barley, wheat and oil-seed rape.  We also cut some acres for our own haylage and silage for the sheep, cattle and horses.  The brewers grain from the brewing process are fed to all the animals, who love the taste!  The waste water and hops are then spread back on the land.

We also have a number of permanent grass pastures for our sheep, cattle and horses, plus a few acres of “setaside”, 10 acres of woodland, two streams, permanent hedges, dykes, stone walling and ponds.



We have a large diversity of wildlife. If you follow our farm footpath you might see foxes, badgers, red squirrels, deer, hares, weasels and stoats, hedgehogs and bats.  Our bird wildlife includes tawny owls and barn owls, heron, sparrowhawks and buzzards. Look out for our piebald farm horse Sundancer, Nel our working collie dog and Cyril the black and white farm cat.

We are only half a mile from the Hadrian’s Wall Footpath, and have a glorious 2 mile farm walk through our fields and woods to Hadrian’s Wall.  This is available all year round.