How Green Are You? from Channel4.com

Fordhall Farm

1929 – present

Green pioneer Arthur Hollins was one of the first organic farmers in England. Today, his Fordhall Farm is still organic and is run by his children, Charlotte and Ben Hollins. The farm is now owned by 8100 shareholders.

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Arthur Hollins with his cattle at fordhall

The Hollins family have been tenant farmers at Fordhall for generations. Arthur Hollins took over the farm in 1929, at the age of 14. Following a period of intensive food production during the Second World War, the land had been left malnourished.

Arthur was struck by the difference between his miserable looking fields and the lush woodland adjacent. Shortly after the war he stopped putting chemical fertlisers on the soil altogether. Over the following decades, Arthur built up a diverse farm business that enabled him to pursue his enthusiasm for biodiversity and farming. He was the ultimate entertainer and educator.

In the 1990s Fordhall landowners decided to sell the land. Arthur Hollins fought to keep the farm, but legal bills drained the business and it began to deteriorate. His two youngest children, inspired by their father's farming philosophy, decided to fight to stay.

In 2004, at only 21 and 19 years of age, Charlotte and Ben began the Fordhall Project. They set up the Fordhall Community Land Initiative, a society of charitable status that now has 8100 shareholders who own the farmland. Charlotte and Ben lease the land on a rare 100 year lease.

Charlotte and Ben continue to promote their father's ethos. Alongside running the farm as a their own business, they are helping the Land Initiative to develop Fordhall as an educational resource, using its organic heritage and abundant wildlife as a starting point. Their aim to show that small-scale organic farming, connected to the local community, offers a viable way of life for generations to come.