The model of the Craven Heifer, dubbed GYSheifer
A popular National Garden Scheme Yellow Book garden that is home to an award-winning brewery is opening for a 24th consecutive year on June 2 and 3. On the opening day, it will share its top of the Wolds venue with a six-foot-tall galvanised steel sculpture of the famous Craven Heifer, dubbed GYSheifer.
The opening of the Wold Newton garden, Hunmanby Grange, coincides with the annual open weekend for Wold Top Brewery and the National Garden Scheme Festival Weekend, that will see more than 300 gardens open to the public in England and Wales.
Entry costs £5 for adults and is free for children. Visitors will be able to tour the beautiful garden that Wold Top Brewery co-founder and horticulturalist, Gill Mellor, has created,, despite its exposure to the elements and a challenging soil. Gill will be on hand to share her stories about how the garden has evolved over a quarter of a century into a series of gardens that have been developed depending on shelter, aspect, views and function.
Children will be free to explore the wild and wooded parts of the garden, and the garden’s lawns will be available for visitors to picnic on.
There will be plants on sale and refreshments will be provided by Field and Forage, whose cattle graze in Hunmanby Grange’s dale.
Visitors to the brewery will be able to see where and how the ales are made using home-grown barley and water from the farm’s borehole. The brewery talks will be wheelchair accessible.
National phenomenon
On the Saturday, visitors will have the opportunity to take a selfie with the GYSheifer and enter a competition to win a family ticket to this year’s 160th Great Yorkshire Show. The GYSheifer is a one-off, bespoke, life-size sculpture in steel, which stands 6ft high, 4ft wide and 11ft long.
The original Craven Heifer was a national phenomenon in the 1800s and people would pay to see her. She remains the largest heifer ever shown in England and lived in the same era as the first Great Yorkshire Show. Hunmanby Grange is one of five stop-off points for the sculpture ahead of the Great Yorkshire Show, which opens on July 10.
Gill Mellor said: “We’re delighted to have raised over £40,000 for the National Garden Scheme’s nursing charities over the last 24 years and to share our garden with people of all ages and gardening ability.
“Visitors will also be able to see the stunning location that clients of our wedding and events venue, Muddy Souls Events, benefit from.”
The gardens and the brewery will be open between 11am and 5pm on both days, and proceeds from the entry money will go via the National Garden Scheme to nursing charities, including Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie and Parkinson’s UK. St Cuthbert’s church, in neighbouring Burton Fleming, will benefit from the proceeds from teas and coffees.
The National Garden Scheme was founded in 1927 to help fund the essential work of district nurses. Ninety-one years on, its volunteers continue to raise money and, in 2017, the National Garden Scheme donated a record £3m to charity.
Last year, Hunmanby Grange’s open weekend raised a record £4000 for National Garden Scheme charities.
» Gold for Wold Top in London Beer Competition
» Drinkaware Crew operational in Yorkshire for first time
All content on Beer Today is free to access and always will be. If you would like to support the site with a donation, though — £5 a year would be brilliant — that will be very welcome and can be done via the PayPal donation button below. (You do not need to have a PayPal account). Many thanks!
