A Working Farm

Rye Farm is farmed by Peter Bunting while his wife, Virginia, runs the B&B and self-catering side of things. Peter is the third generation of the Bunting family to have lived and worked here, his grandfather having purchased the farm in 1921 - nearly 90 years ago.

Up to the end of 2009 the farm covered 370 acres (150 hectares), under wide East Anglian skies. 270 acres are given over to arable crops: wheat, barley and oil-seed rape. The remaining 100 acres are permanent grazing, mainly for the farm's flock of sheep. Friesan heifers are also reared for a dairy farm in Suffolk.

Work has now started on a major expansion of neighbouring Abberton Reservoir. Within the next year or two Rye Farm will be reduced to 100 acres, at least until work on the project is completed.

The farm has a flock of 270 Mule ewes which produce about 420 lambs in the spring. Mule sheep are crosses between a Bluefaced Leicester ram and a Swaledale or Northumberland type Blackface dam. Lambing at Rye Farm usually begins towards the end of March and continues for about three weeks. This is the time to visit if you wish to see lambs being born. You can, of course, still see plenty of lambs here after lambing has finished in mid- or late-April.

To the front of the house is the moat, popular with our Aylesbury ducks.

Beyond the moat, the farmhouse looks out over Abberton Reservoir. This 1200 acre Reservoir is a Wetland of International Importance, a Site of Special Scientific Interest, a Special Protection Area, and one of the most important wildfowl havens in Europe. Some of the wildfowl seem to prefer the facilities we offer at Rye Farm!