The Stickney Farm Park story

West View as it was then known was bought by the present Harry Dodds' Grandfather (also called Harry Dodds) in 1933, from a Mr Smith. At that time the house had about 4 acres of land and was a working farm with sheep and milk cows. The summer of either 1940 or 1941 was disastrous for the farm with a severe hailstorm with hailstones more rectangular than spherical in shape and reputedly as large as matchboxes. The storm broke 29 panes of glass in the front of West View, killed all the baby chicks and totally ended the crops so that there was no harvest at all that year. The farm passed to Harry Dodds' father (another Harry Dodds!) in 1978 and was and is currently farmed by his son.

The idea of "Stickney Farm Park" was light-heartedly born in January of 2003 after yet another family visit to a farm park with our daughter who was 10 at the time. On the homeward journey the conversation was about the fact that, although we live on a farm our idea of a day out was to pay to visit a farm! "Why?" we pondered when, "We've got cows.... and rabbits and guinea-pigs.... plus a pony.... not to mention two tortoises.... "

A few days later we happened to remark on this conversation to friends who replied that they thought that instead of talking about it, we should give it a go! Initially we did nothing other than run the idea by other friends and business people. We then decided to contact East Lindsey District Council's Planning Department and as a result a site visit was arranged. The outcome of the visit was more positive than we had expected and so as suggested we next contacted the Highways Department and arranged another site visit. This also went well and we took on board their recommendations.

The next step was to find an architect who might not have designed a farm park before, but who had the necessary vision. We were very fortunate in our choice! By this time we were beginning to have our own conceptions of what "Stickney Farm Park" would comprise: a variety of farm animals plus a few selected others, a waterfowl pond and lawn, picnic areas, play areas, souvenir shop, tea-room..... The plans were submitted to East Lindsey District Council on 9 August 2003 and full planning permission was granted on 23 October 2003.

Whilst all of this was happening Isabel was working on a Business Plan to submit to the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA), to see if any funding would be available to help towards the total cost of the project through "The Rural Enterprise Scheme". She started this in February 2003 and finished it at 9pm on November 27, 2003. The closing date for applications being the next day! The Business Plan contained 11 chapters, 20 appendices and 5 annexes and was based on the guidelines downloaded from the internet. The outcome was that in March 2004 we received a grant and work started on April 13th 2004.

Stickney Farm Park encourages children to feed and pet the animals, bottle feed baby animals, collect eggs, and lots more hands-on experiences. There is a school room with a variety of educational facilities making the farm an ideal place for schools to visit. It aims to promote enjoyment, knowledge and understanding of the countryside and life on a farm.

We hope you will want to visit us soon.

Harry and Isabel Dodds