White garden

This is the view over the white garden earlier today. 

This garden was laid out in 2005 and is often used to celebrate weddings. 

Baby calf born

Below is a picture of a day old calf born at the farm at Soulton Hall last week. We are mainly an arable farm bu the ancient archeology on the farm means that we have some grazing fields close by. 

Potatoes

Potatoes being irrigated on our farm earlier today. 

These are set to become Walkers crisps. 

Cute

This is a baby pheasant chick found separated from its mother while setting a seed bed for some of next year's cropping.  It is very cute, and now back with its mother.  

Wild life conservation on the farm

This is a conservation corner, which is left free of crops (wheat in this case) so that it is available for wildlife.

This sort of setting supports, among other things, small mammals which in turn support their predators, such are barn owls, of which there are now thought to be only 3,000 breeding pairs in the whole UK. We have at least two.

Visitor's Book

Visitor's Book

Here are some pages from our visitor's Book.

National Green Award

H&V Awards 2014 – Renewable Project of the Year

Soulton Hall has been nominated alongside Stiebel Eltron and Total NRG for the H&V Awards 2014 – Renewable Project of the Year.  This is reflecting the work in the ground source heating project.  

According to the nomination notificaton:

"This is one of the industry’s leading titles; being shortlisted is a great achievement and testament to your strong commitment to sustainability and innovation."

The awards themselves take place at the Grosvenor on April 24. 

Click here for more information. 

Blubells in Soulton Wood

Bluebells in Soulton Wood

50 acres of bluebells burst into flower in our private woodland 

To find out more click here.

Moot Hall Restoration

The restoration of the Moot Hall is now complete.

Here are some pictures.

These pictures were taken by Parallel Imaging 

Antique four poster bed

We have just acquired another Four Poster Bed for Soulton.

This antique bed was bought at auction at Bonhams on Thursday.

Moot Hall Restoration

The Moot Hall, in Soulton Court, is currently undergoing restoration. 

This fantastic room has been unused for 60 years.  Originally, it was used for the administrative functions of the manor (the manorial court sat there, and indeed it shown as offices in a plan from 1799). 

It is going to make a wonderful space for events and meetings -- an add significantly to what Soulton Court provides already .

Greening Update: Heating

In order to advice our thinking on green heating of Soulton, we have commissioned an extensive audit of the heating demands of our buildings.

We are pleased to be able to share this report with anyone who takes a keen interest in greening.  You can find the report here.

We are giving very strong consideration to ground source heating to replace our current reliance on oil.  Additionally, we are looking at ways of increasing the efficiency of our buildings' use of/ability to retain heat.  Naturally, we are somewhat restricted in this as a listed building -- but we have agreed one or two ways we can improve this, and there has been much effort in previous years on this.

Holiday Season 2012

Details about Christmas Celebrations 2012 are now available. You can find them here.

Fire Safety Measures and Training

Whole team training in the safe use of fire extinguishers, took place today. 

This is undetaken every year by profesional contractors and builds on the routine drills and inductions etc that we undertake. 

The whole Soulton Hall site runs on a linked fire detection system, while in the cottages the alarms also linked, for maximum safety of occupants. 

All health and safety policies, for those that are intersted can be found here.

Some notes on Soulton Heraldry

This is the coat of arms above the Soulton Hall front door.  

It is the marital coat of arms of Thomas Hill and his wife Sarah. 

The blazen of the quaterings are as flows:

A: Hill of Court of Hill ermine, on a fesse sable a triple towered castle argent

B:  Hill of Longslow: Sable, a lion rampent argent, langued and armed, crowned or between three croffed fromee fitchee of the second;

C: Evans of Watstay, Co Denbigh Argent, a fesse between three fleur-de-lys, sable;

D: Eyton of Rhiwabon C Denbigh ermine, a lion rampant crowned or, langued and armed;

E: Bird of Charleton, per pale or and argent, an eale displayed, beaked and armed;

F:  Hill of Buntinsdale;  gules, a chevron between three pheons argent, pionts downwards;

G: Lloyd, (Bishop of St Asaph, 1680) argent, a chevron between three crows sable, each holding in its beak an ermine spot;

H: Grifith, Lord of Bromfield Play of eight argent and gules, a lion rampant sable;

Flagstaf re-instated at Soutlon Hall

Following the enthusiasm for the jubilee, we have re-instated the flagpole here. 

There was a flag pole here during WWII certainly, and the fixings on the parapet are substantially older than that.  Indeed, it is (we think), reasonable to assume that Thomas Hill and Rowland Hill (late 1600s and 1550s/1560s respectively) would have used heraldic flags during their time.  Rowland Hill was Lord Mayor of London and to this day this office uses heraldic flags; Thomas Hill was High Sheriff and as such conducted significant parts of county administration from Soulton, not least (by Royal command) the recovery effort following the Great Fire of Wem.

This picture below shows the hall displaying our county colours (the Shropshire flag). 

Below is Soulton's own banner of arms.

Work in our Woodland: Cricket Bat Harvest

Yesterday saw the end of a few day's of work in our 50 acre woodland: harvesting 30% of a crop of willows, grown here for cricket bats.  Later in the year their replaments will be planted. 

These trees are grown on a 15 year rotation, so these in turn will be harvested some time around 2030. 

Ultimately, this wood will become Gray and Nichols bats.

Each time significant work is done in this area of Soulton Wood, we open up better access to what is a sublime habitat of ancient woodland, leading down to Soulton Brook and the River Roden.  These rivers are home to water voles, otters, brown trout and mayfly. 

Below is a picture of this wonderful peacful location:

And below is a picture of one of the replacment stands from work done two years ago:

Getting into the spirit of the Jubilee!

Bunting has gone up in the gardens here to celebrate the Jubilee of HM Queen Elizabeth II. Here are some pictures:

Soulton "sets the standard for sustainable tourism" -- SPP Magazine

New article about greening at Soulton in SPP Magazine: 

http://www.solarpowerportal.co.uk/case_studies/soulton_hall_sets_the_standard_for_sustainable_tourism2356

Outstanding Bluebells in Soulton Wood: Stop motion tour

Once again, we are enjoying a fantastic flush of spring colour around the farm and in the gardens.  

Below is a quick stop motion of the bluebells in Soulton Wood for 2012.