Deepdale Farms
Welcome to the multi award winning Deepdale Farm on the beautiful north Norfolk coast.
Deepdale Farm has been a family farm for four generations. Each generation has developed the farm further, taking on new land and expanding the business interests. Alister Borthwick and his son Jason Borthwick now run the farm, with Alister doing the day to day farming and management. Jason is part-time involved mainly in the marketing and diversification.
The Tourism side of the business is now leased to Deepdale Leisure Ltd, run by Louise Smith and Andrea Bramhall. We share this website and hopefully you will find all you want to know about Deepdale and the facilities and services we provide.
Deepdale is still a working arable farm, but with the ever fluctuating state of farming we want to increase the income from non farming activities. As you can see we've diversified to a large extent and there are many more ideas in the pipeline.
We try to take the environment into account with all our diversification and day to day running of the business.
In 2006 we fully opened Dalegate Market, replaced the run down petrol station and tiny shop. Dalegate Market now offer excellent facilities and services for both locals and visitors, including a larger cafe, convenience store and other shops.
We must say a large thank you to both DEFRA and EEDA who have been very supportive with our tourism development projects. They have supplied money from the Rural Development Scheme and the Redundant Farm Buildings Scheme for Deepdale Backpackers. The improvements to Deepdale Camping and Deepdale Granary would not have been possible without their support.
Both Alister and Jason are very active in promoting diversification and are active members of both the farming and tourism industries.
Jason is heavily involved in tourism, being on the regional board of the British Hospitality Association. He's now stepped away from the day to day running of Deepdale to help others develop equally as challenging projects as we've completed at Deepdale. His new company is Earthly Ideas.
Ethical Policy
We try to take into account the environment with all aspects of the business and have been awarded the Gold Green Tourism Business Scheme Award.
The tourism side is marketed as eco-friendly and we’ve worked hard to get our visitors to be as environmentally friendly as possible. They are asked to recycle all their rubbish and to use their cars as little as possible.
We actively promote the bus service, which connects with most of the local attractions and activities and also supply bike hire and walking information. We’ve installed green technologies where ever possible, such as underfloor heating, high efficiency boilers, solar water heating, motion sensors for lighting, low energy light bulbs, low flush and low flow water units. In the new retail site, staff loos are flushed with rain water, a test which we are hoping to roll out to other parts of the site. All toilets rolls are 100% recycled paper. All our tenants are required to recycle and for the entire site (hostels, camping, farm and retail units) we use just 3 wheelie bins, everything else is recycled.
The countryside stewardship walks are open to the public as walks, to cycle or for horse-riding. Hedge rows are retained to encourage bird life. A recent bird survey in 2003 showed that there are at least 52 species of bird breeding on the farm. Regular surveys of Flora and Fauna are carried out. A total of 149 different species of Flora and Fauna have been noted from the stewardship walks, including the exciting find of 16 different species of butterfly. Where possible, after we have combined the cereal crop, we try to leave the stubble fields over the autumn and winter. This provides a marvellous foraging ground for a wide range of birds. Pink-footed geese feed on the green tops left behind in sugar beet fields. They are a marvellous sight as they go over the farm each morning and evening. Great care is taken in the planning of the crops so as to minimise the need for chemical control of pests and diseases.
We are continually working towards environmental best practise and are always interested in new sources of advice. As members of the National Farmers Union and the Country Landowners Association, we attend training days and discussion groups run by such organisations such as English Nature, RSPB and Drainage Boards. Over the years there have been dramatic changes to the way we undertake work on the farm, such as how we try to only clean one side of a ditch at a time, leaving somewhere for the animals and birds undisturbed.
We consider the local community and economy with every business decision. In the last five years we’ve created over 65 jobs. Not only have we developed the tourism facilities at the farm, which include the campsite, backpackers hostel, group hostel and tourist information centre, but they’ve also developed a retail site next door called Dalegate Market. The site of the retails site was to be sold as second homes, however Alister and Jason managed to save the site and have now created a retail site for 7 businesses including a café, supermarket and fuel station. These facilities not only offer jobs, but also offer excellent services to local and visitors to the area.
Above and beyond supplying facilities for businesses to work from and creating over 65 jobs, we help with marketing of the area. We run a village website and an associated leaflet that promote the local area. Through our information centre we support local events and activities by selling tickets and giving out information. We often host the village fete and other village events. Due to the number of people staying with us (over 25000 bed nights so far in 2008), many of the local businesses have been able to invest in year round staff and business improvements. We try to source products locally, for example the cleaning products are Bio-d which are a UK product. Our café offers catering and most of their produce is from the immediate area.
Social Networks
Deepdale Farms is listed in the following categories
Travel & Holidays / Ethical HolidaysTravel & Holidays / Eco Holiday Accommodation
Business Services / Consultants & Advisors
Gardening & Farming / Gardening & Farming Services
