GETTING GREENER -- solar power

Soulton now has solar power, and is able to generate at least as much electricity in a year as it uses. 

This is a big step in improving our sustainability and reducing the impact of our operations the environment. 

More on sustainability here: http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/soulton/sustainability_soulton.pdf

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UPDATE  

We have been selected as a case study by SOLAR POWER PORTAL; you can find the article at this here.

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Rescue dog here one year

Max, our rescue dog, has now been here a year. He has setteled in well and is a great character.

Pets are welcome here; more details about this here.

Another new painting of Soulton Hall

Sue Horder has also painted a watercolour of Soulton Hall, see image below.

The painting is from a window in Soulton Court, looking across the White Garden to Soulton Hall. 

New Painting of Soulton Hall

New painting of Soulton: we were thrilled to recieve a new painting this morning from Sue Horder.

Inspired by the 'dot painting' associated with the Australian Aboriginal people, and in particular the Papunya Tula collective, the canvas imagines a birds eye view of Soutlon Hall, and the farm.

Sue has also painted a watercolour of Soulton Hall from the White Garden.

VIDEO: Soulton Autumn & Winter: Winter Breaks Starting Soon

Soulton Autumn & Winter Video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0BW0wmjGW_Q

Winter breaks start from the end of this month, details here:
http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/contact/special_occasions_and_offers.html

Farm and Garden: Provenance: Video

A new, short video look at the farm and gardens and the food they produce: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Brj4oIzyyYU

More info here http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/dining/provenance.html

BBC Show featuring Jules Hudson and John Craven: Filming at Soulton

Filming for an upcomming show with Jules Hudson and John Craven took place on the farm earlier today.

It should be going out on the BBC early in 2012, the show's name is not confirmed for sure yet, but the working tilte is "Country Crafts at Risk".

Welcome, Stewardship, Farming, History, Food: Word Cloud insight into some Soulton Ideas

A third party scan of our website reveals the most frequently used words on our website:

Miss World Fashion Shoot Video

Miss World Sponsors, Sandstorm Boutique, brought Jamie Lee Williams, Miss Galaxy International 2011, to Soulton for a fashion shoot in the grounds and gardens recently.


They have produced a video of the shoot here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci4sT3SOMaw

Samuel Pepys Connection: Radio Four Serialisation

This week sees a radio serialisation of some of Samuel Pepys's Diary : http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015bt12  . 

Thomas Hill (who lived at Soulton in the mid/late 1600s) was a great friend of Pepys.  There are 58 references to him in the diary: http://www.pepysdiary.com/p/7165.php#references

Restoration reveals 200+ year old wall paper: match available?

200+ year old wall paper uncovered in recent restoration work.

We have approached Farrow and Ball to see if we could use the same/similar pattern in future re-decoration.

Community Fun Ride Hosted by Farm

Drag hunting this morning.

NSH meet at this farm this morning for a drag hunt. They chased an artificial scent laid over a terrain earlier.

This traditional activity has evolved to exclude the controversial involvement of wild animals.

Secret Painting: exposed by decorators

Decorators applying wood preservative to a 300 year old door in the Tallet have exposed an old impression of a running fox on the door, which had previously been invisible! 

It’s these sorts of things that make restoration work here such fun.

More on this history of Soulton at http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/soulton/history.html 

Educational Acess Visits.

For many years now, we have been welcoming school kids and service users to the farm here for educational visits.

These are a free service, part of our commitment to environmental stewardship, along with the permisive footpaths etc we have created.

Info on participating farms all over the country at www.growingschools.org.uk

Miss World photo shoot in grounds.

Sponsors of this year's Miss World – Sandstorm – brought Jamie Lee, raining Miss Wales to Soulton last weekend. They are taking publicity stills here for the event in October.

Community Fundraisers: diary dates

In November and December Soulton will be supporting two community fundraisers, details in the posters below. 

The musical evening in particular is close to Soulton, as the organ has historic associations with this household: it was an Ashton gift in 1910 and Weston Church has assosiations with Soulton back at least as far as 1556.

BBC Radio 4: "Saving Species" covers water vole project including Soulton land

BBC Radio 4's "Saving Species" cover water vole conservation in a project including our own Soulton Brook and River Roden (it's about 18 mins in):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/b014fd21

Harvest Home

Harvest Home.


Soulton Hall's own private farm's harvest is now home. Work planting next year's crops is now well in hand.

Work begins on Smartphone website

Now we have a QR code, work is underway to set up a streamlined wedbsite for smart phones and mobile devices, staring with this landing page: http://kimtag.com/soultonhall

Shooter's Lodge Refurbishment Nears Completion

Decorators will finish work on Shooter's Lodge later this week.  Earlier in the year, the house was re-roofed (along with two other cottages) and three new en suite bathrooms were added. 

New carpets across the whole house will be complemented by fresh furnature.

A new kitchen will also be added.

BBC Two's Escape to the Country -- return visit with Alistair Appleton.

Alistair Appleton and crew for BBC Two's 'Escape to the Country' departed this morning.

We expect the programme to go out in October 2011.

Soulton Gets QR code

Soulton Hall has just acquired a QR code.

This is a two-dimensional code, readable by dedicated QR readers, smartphones and, to a less common extent, computers with webcams.  In time this will be added to our printed matter, to make it easier to connect with these devices.

BBC Two's "Escape to the Country" set to return to Soulton

BBC Two's "Escape to the Country" are set to return to Soutlon Hall next week.


An episode featuring Soulton Hall shot in the spring is set to air in September.

56 Languages -- soultonhall.co.uk and translation tool

The addition of a web-basised tool to our website has now made the content avaible in 56 languages.

A new short video impression of Soulton

FarmStay UK and Podcasts have just put this short video about Soulton Hall together about us.

Harvest Begins

Tha farm began harvesting today. See a video of the farm's activities.

Victorian Soulton: a short film

A short slidshow of the remarkable collection of 1890s images we have of Soulton has been published to our YouTube channel.

It is embedded on the history page of our website.

Video of a special day

Damian Hall Photography have kindly shared this short video of a wedding here earlier this summer.  It can now be found on our website here.





Joanne and David | Soulton Hall Wedding Photography from Damian Hall on Vimeo.

More filming at Soulton...

A podcast shot by 'Podcats' for 'Farmstay' was filmed here on Wednesday. The video will be available via our website and this page soon.

Local Magazine Feature Soulton Hall

If you are local to us, there is a feature about Soulton's History in the 'Wemian' Summer edition, pp. 23-4. 

Unfortunately, there is no online edition.

New Media Consolidation

The new media, which helps us to keep people up to date with the distinctive work Soulton is involved in, and which makes it special, have been gathered together in one place to make life easier. 

This can be found here:

http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/soulton/social_media.html

Examples of this distinctive work include efforts to:

• Protect, care for an enhance the historic buildings we are privileged to care for;
• Have a role in our local comunity, supporting events and organisations;
• Are at the heart of a busy working farm;
• Do significant work to nurture extensive wildlife;
• Look after archaeology;
• Are working to be a greener and greener business;
• Maintain substancial gardens and home produce.



Museam of London Profile Soulton's 1556 owner

The Museam of London have profiled Rowland Hill, the owner and improver of Soulton Hall in 1556.  Details can be found here:

http://www.museumoflondon.org.uk/London-Wall/Whats-on/Galleries/medieval/People/2918/

French translation for website

Deatils about Soulton Hall have been added to our website in French; these can be found here:
http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/soulton/french.html

Major Green Investments

Major Green investment is currently being contemplated for the farming and hospitality operations running from Soulton. 

Green energy consultants were on site earlier this year to review the opportunities here, and we have since received their report, prioritising:

1. PV solar generation;
2. biomass heating, fueled by our own woodland and farm management

John and Tim attended Cereals (an annual agricultural event) last week, and schemes are currently being prepared by PV solar providers so we can consider the best approach.  The pannels are expected to go on a grain storage facility we have in the farm yard west of Soulton Hall.

The scheme will generate 25kwhp, and in braod terms should make Soulton self sufficeint in electric.

If things progress as we hope, they should be installed by April 2012.

After this, we will be seriously considering a biomass boiler which is capable of heating the entire site (Soulton Hall, Carrage House, Soulton Court, Cedar Lodge etc). 

Exciting.

Enhanced Restaurant Details

We have updated the restaurant section of our website to reflect two things:

(1) the enhanced level of our own produce we are now using following on from the arrival of Terry as a veg gardener earlier this year;

(2) the increasingly imaginative use of this and local produce by new chef Justin.


http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/dining/restaurant.html

Industry Awards Nomination

Soulton has been nominated in the awards above. 

More details and voting details can be found at:

www.the-wedding-industry-awards.co.uk/2012/west-midlands/venue/soulton-hall

New PDF for Ploughman's Cottage

There's a new pdf for Ploughman's Cottage, it can be found here:
http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/cottages/about_ploughmans.pdf ,

or you can click on links from this page.

Home Produce Update

Photographs of home produce, taken by our Veg Gardener Terry this morning.

More about our food provenance here: http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/dining/provenance.html

Conservation Competition

 Soulton Farm is a candidate in the Campaign for the Farmed Environment/Farming and Wildlife Group competition.  


In 2009, we too second place.  More about environmental stewardship at Soulton can be found here:   
here.

New pdf for Herdsman's Cottage

Following the re-roofing and this week's departure of the painters, we have produced a pdf for Herdsman's Cottage. 

We produced a detailed pdf for Keeper's Cottage at the begining of this year, and it has proved a helpful resourse for guests. 

The Herdsman's pdf can be found here.

A Ploughman's pdf will be finished shortly.  Three new bathrooms have been installed in Shooter's Lodge, and it will be re-decorated, refurnished and recarpeted in the comming weeks.  When this is done we'll add a pdf for this cottage. 

Interactive satellite map of Soulton Estate

There's now an interactive satellite based map of the farm in Google maps.  You can find it embedded here.

It marks all of the cottages, as well as some of the footpaths, our woodland and farm boundary. 

Update: re-roofing at selected cottages completed

Ploughman's Cottage, Herdsman's Cottage and Shooter's Lodge all now have new roofs, following work completed back in March, and reported here.

At Ploughman's and Herdsman's, the aesthetic of the houses has been improved by adding gabbles to the dormer windows: the original 1890s dormers were flat.

During these works, we have added heat insulation to lower the environmental impact of these houses. 

This week decorators are undertaking routine re-painting to the exteriors. 

You can learn more about our cottages here. 

New chef: updated sample menu

Our new chef Justin's arrived a little over a month ago; (we reported his arrival here). 

Follwoing on from this, we have updated the sample menu available to download from our website, to reflect his new ideas.  

You can download the new sample menu here. The full text of the sample menu is also to be found below.  

As our regular dinners will know, the menu changes daily, but we hope this sample will give returning and new guests a good idea of our contunued use of ''so much of our own produce'' as Conde Nast Johansens recently put it.

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SAMPLE MENU  

 Cauliflower and Shropshire Blue soup

Pressing of duck with Madeira jelly and pear chutney

Seared scallops with crushed garden peas, crispy pancetta and pea foam

Twice baked Cheshire cheese soufflé with pickled fennel and home dried tomatoes

Spinach timbales cooked to an Old English recipe

*****

Lemon sorbet with sparkling wine

*****

Roast rack of lamb with mini shepherd’s pie, baby carrots and red currant jus

Goat’s cheese ravioli, olive tapenade, roast peppers, courgette and parsley velouté

Pan fried sea bass fillet, saffron potatoes and asparagus three ways

Honey roast duck breast with dauphinoise potatoes, braised red cabbage and pan juices

Roasted sea trout with crab tortailli and samphire and shellfish foam

*****

Iced home damson parfait with damson jelly and meringue sticks

Dark chocolate and orange tart with orange cream and caramel syrup

Rum and raisin burnt Cambridge cream with shortbread biscuit

Strawberry and cranberry jelly with strawberry soup and vanilla ice cream

Smoked chocolate fondant with pistachio ice cream and brandy snap

*****

Selection of Shropshire and Welsh cheeses (extra charge)

*****

Freshly brewed coffee with home made petit fours

(Liqueurs and liqueur coffees are available on request)

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Soulton: A Red Tractor Farm

Soulton Hall's private 500 acre farm is part of the ''Red Tractor Assurance'' chain, and the farming operations here are now permited to use the above logo. 

Following the alignment of all 6 farm assurance schemes last year, new logos have been created for what was formaly the Assured Combinable Crops Scheme, in which Soulton has participated for well over a decade.

The member logo above, indicates that the farming operations at Soulton comply with onourous standards which are indendantly inspected. 

Over 78,000 farmers and growers are now members of the scheme, all committed to maintaining high standards of food safety and hygiene, animal welfare and environmental protection. The Red Tractor logo can be spotted on thousands of products such as beef, lamb, pork, chicken, turkey, milk, cheese, cream, cereals, vegetables, sugar, flour, fruit and salads in shops and supermarkets everywhere

See more about the farm at:

http://www.soultonhall.co.uk/soulton/estate_and_woodland.html

Sawday's Newest listing



Soulton Hall is Alastair Sawdays newest lisiting, see www.soultonhall.co.uk/impressions/media_reviews.html

"There's been a house on this land since 1066, but Soulton goes back to 1430, a fortified house that was home to the first Protestant mayor of London. It stands magnificently in 500 acres of pasture and woodland, yours to roam. It's a family affair: John farms, Ann looks after the house.

Climb the steps, slip through a spectacular stone doorway, arrive in the hall, sink in a sofa in front of a fire. Potter about and find an attractive dining room and a cosy bar, but it's the bedrooms in the main house that leave the big impression. You'll find them up an old oak staircase (and you glimpse a section of original wattle and daub on your way up). Four grand country-house bedrooms wait. They come with timber frames, mullioned windows, the odd panelled wall and polished floors; three have fancy bathrooms. It's all splendidly regal, and while simpler bedrooms are also available, it's worth bagging one of these.

Back downstairs, you eat in style, perhaps carrot and coriander soup, lemon sorbet with sparkling wine, chicken cooked with hazelnuts and cream, sticky toffee pudding."

You can see the original entry here.

Good Hotel Guide

The Good Hotel Guide have just refreshed their website (a screen capture of our page apears to the right). 

Here's how The Guardian describes the guide: 

 "Squeaky clean advice. No.1 of the guidebooks that take no freebies, readies or ads"

Our listing, which can be found here, says: 

On a 500-acre estate with a working farm, this 'impressive' Tudor manor house has been in the hands of the same family since 1556. 'It remains very much the home of John and Ann Ashton,' say inspectors in 2010. 'They are hard-working hosts, happy to advise on local places of interest.' The hall has a 'remarkable' collection of antiques from various periods, old family portraits, original fireplaces, and 'a happy mix of comfortable sofas and armchairs'. Four of the bedrooms are in the main house; others are in the Carriage House and Cedar Lodge close by. 'Our room in the main house was a generous space with stone mullioned windows. An immense Victorian wardrobe provided ample storage. Armchairs and a desk in an alcove encouraged relaxation.' Dinner is served in a small candlelit room by the host. His wife, aided by a new chef, Justin Fenwich-Scott, cooks traditional meals: 'She delivers spot-on seasoning in dishes like spinach timbale with crunchy elements of other vegetables; main courses came with vegetables from local producers, which were full of flavour and cooked with care. The cooked breakfast was of prime quality.'

Elderflowers

Pictured, you can see some elderflower cordial.  This was made yesterday, along with some elderflower fritters both for the restaurant at Soulton Hall.  

At this time of year Soulton farm has an abundance of wild flowers and berries and we are pleased to use in the cooking here.  We also have a productive walled garden.

You can learn more about our food provenance here.

French details

Details about Soulton Have now been added in French here.

Soulton's facilities -- Updated Website

The last few years have substantial expansion of the public space we have at Soulton. This has been reflected in a newly updated area of our website here.

Condé Nast Johansens Awards

Soulton is a candidate in the 2012 the Condé Nast Johansens Awards; you can vote here:

http://www.johansens.com/awards

Christmas and Holiday Season Celebrations

Deatils of Christmas parties 2011 at Soulton Hall are now to be found on your website here.

Soulton Welcomes New Chef

Very excitingly, Soulton welcomes a new chef today. 

We are delighted to anounce that Justin (pictured above in the walled garden with Ann) has just joined our team. He'll be heading up our kitchens.

Justin is ardent about using homegrown and local produce.

We'll be adding more information and refreshing the dining area of our website over the comming weeks, and are very excited about the new ideas which are all ready developing. 

You'll find further information shortly here .