Your stay at Wakelyns

Welcome to Wakelyns. We hope you enjoy your stay.

Set out below is some basic information which we hope will help you enjoy your time here. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to ask.

Introduction

Wakelyns is a working farm with lots of extra things going on, sometimes 7 days a week. Indeed, that is probably why you have chosen to stay here – it is all part of the Wakelyns experience. So please do not be surprised by noise or activity. Enjoy it and join in as you wish.

Wakelyns is a place which is constantly changing – even just the work on repairing and improving the farm buildings will be ongoing for months, if not years. So please do not be surprised by there being a skip in the farmyard, and by some areas (well away from where you are staying) looking like a building site. 

It follows that some areas of Wakelyns overall will look a bit untidy and be hazardous. There are also open ponds, nettles, and other things around which children, in particular, will need to take great care.

We have some general rules to guide you: “terms and conditions”. They are set out on our website: https://wakelyns.co.uk/tandc/ Please have a look.

Safety

Please take care of yourselves at Wakelyns.

We have first aid kits in the pantry in the farmhouse, in the outside summer kitchen,  and in the kitchen area within the office building.

The only places where fires are allowed is in the fire-places and stoves in the house, or in one of the fire-bowls we provide for that purpose. If you light a fire, one of your party needs to take specific responsibility for it, including knowing where the nearest fire extinguisher is and making sure it is safe/out before you go to bed at night. There will be some times of the year (in drought when the field and meadows are baked dry) when fires will not be permitted at all.

In the house there are fire extinguishers near each fireplace/stove. In the farm area and surrounding areas there are fire extinguishers:

• Two extinguishers in the farmyard, one by the sinks the other by the wood chip hopper.
• Two extinguishers in the old black barn, one by the ‘bar’, the other by the small door from the yard.
• Two extinguishers in the bakery.
• Two extinguishers in the office building, one in the lobby, one on the left as you go into the main room.
• One extinguisher on the wall by the entrance to Jamie Calvert’s workshop.
• One extinguisher on the wall of the Cowshed.
• One extinguisher on the wall of the Boarshed.
• One extinguisher on the wall of each of the Ley Alley Pods.

In the neighbourhood of Wakelyns

Although there is plenty to do and enjoy at Wakelyns, you may well want to venture out into our local area. We have put together some basic tourist information about things going on around Wakelyns. Download it here.

At Wakelyns

There is lots of information about Wakelyns on www.wakelyns.co.uk.

That website is also linked to many micro-sites for each of the additional enterprises based here so do browse through each to get more information.

As you know, the core activity at Wakelyns is organic agroforestry. As part of that, we grow organic wheat, lentils, squash and other things within the alleys between North-South tree lines comprising timber trees, fruit/nut trees, and trees for hedging and for biomass.

Our organic rotation has a four-year cycle (slightly longer than some others because we do not use any animal or other additional imported fertility).

That means that, at any one time, about half the alleys will be planted with a fertility building ley. Our ‘Ley Alley Pods’ move around within the alleys which are in that state at any one time – they are part of our organic rotation.

During your stay, do make sure to have a good walk of our beautiful agroforestry farm. Feel free to go anywhere on our land, taking care, obviously, not to harm crops etc.

Please, though, do not go into any of the sheds, barns or other buildings on site (including the office/education building and the bakery) unless that is part of some specific activity, or you are with one of the Wakelyns team.

If you are staying in the farmhouse, then you have sole use of the house garden. If you are not staying in the farmhouse, please do not go near the house garden to give house guests privacy.

If you are walking around the Southern part of Wakelyns, please take particular care not to disturb or impact on the privacy of our neighbours on Metfield Lane and stay away from Metfield Lane Farm – the house and garden on Metfield Lane which is largely surrounded by Wakelyns fields.

If you are here for several days, we will try and schedule to show you around a bit in person, so that you are not solely reliant on the Self-Guided Tour and the QR Codes.

Wakelyns mugs are available as a souvenir for £10 each as are other items (including Wakelyns apple juice and other things from the Silva Kitchen & Bakery) in the Carport with a card machine to pay.

The Wakelyns outdoor kitchen (aka Summer Kitchen)

The covered area in the farmyard is set up as a shared kitchen area for the use of everyone living, staying, or working at Wakelyns.

Feel free to use it during your stay including respecting other people’s needs and keeping it clean and tidy. If you use any of the equipment, please wash up, wipe up, and put away after use.

The lights are turned on via a 13A plug on one of the wooden pillars.

There is a fridge/freezer for shared use. Please keep it clean and label things you store in there.

There are two combi microwave/conventional ovens; also several electric halogen hobs (for which you need to use a compatible pan) a toaster, a hot water urn and tea/coffee making facilities.

There are two large sinks with hot and cold water for washing up etc. Please do your own washing up, dry up, and put away afterwards.

There are lots of food preparation spaces. Please keep them clean and tidy.

Also in the farmyard is a fire bowl for shared use. Please collaborate with others in using it. We can show your where to find kindling, fire gloves, matches and BBQ tools. Please take care!

There will be some times of the year (in drought when the field and meadows are baked dry) when BBQs and the firepit will not be permitted at all for safety reasons.

People and Enterprises at Wakelyns

The Wakelyns team includes many people.

Amanda and David own and run Wakelyns on behalf of the Wolfe family. They are around a lot of the time and are your first point of contact please for general questions and comments about Wakelyns and your stay.

There are lots of other people who come and go at Wakelyns, either helping with the farming, volunteering or running their own enterprise based here.  All of them would be very happy to talk about what they do, but please bear in mind they may be working and might not have time to drop everything instantly to talk. If you particularly want to meet any of them or you have a special interest, please let us know and we can put you in touch.

Wakelyns is home to a number of independent ‘enterprises’. They are part of our overall system of ‘short food chains’ and ‘enterprise stacking’ – ways of making sure that our land is used and enjoyed as productively as possible by lots of people. Like the pods, each of these enterprises is designed and run to provide an additional layer of activity and enhance what goes on here without compromising the underlying farming. Please look at our website for more detail Wakelyns.co.uk/enterprises/ and click through to the individual microsites.

Each of the enterprises is connected to the place of Wakelyns in a different way – from growing to baking and the produce that is grown here or through nature. Some enterprises use dedicated areas – fields, workshops or buildings for their activities; and some use the whole site in different ways and different times. Our open days or activity days are often a good opportunity to meet lots of the enterprises at once. All the enterprises have signed up to our shared set of values.

Silva Kitchen & Bakery at Wakelyns

A core part of the Wakelyns experience, Lindsay Wright and Nicola Hordern are Silva.  They are based in the on-site bakery, opposite the office building, where they transform the food from the crops and tree alleys into bread, jams, pasta, chutneys, cakes and much more! Their ethos is to connect the field and the table through careful craft, community engagement and a belief that diversity in grain, the ecosystem and people makes life richer and food tastier and more meaningful.

They make small batches of bread each week in the wood-fired oven in the bakery, and also provide catering for events at Wakelyns and further afield.

Look at their microsite: Wakelyns.co.uk/kitchenandbakery/

So if you are visiting or coming to stay, and you would like to order food from the Silva team, you must book ahead.

Contact silva@wakelyns.co.uk

The Carport

The Carport is our little ‘honesty shop’ where you can buy some of the produce made on site, including bread and meals (in the freezer), apple juice, chutneys, jams, muesli and other delicious things, as well as willow baskets, bird boxes, bug houses, wooden spoons and other things associated or connected to Wakelyns. It also has local information, including on events and transport. There is a card machine to enable you to select the item/s you are purchasing and pay.

Finally

We hope you enjoy your stay at Wakelyns.

If you have any comments or questions, please let us know.

We will do our best promptly to sort out any problems. If you cannot immediately find us, then do not hesitate to ring/text/WhatsApp David on 07740 948536.

And if you have any suggestions for how we might change things to improve them for people staying or visiting in the future, we’d love to know.

Amanda and David