Official statement from Pick a Pumpkin
Dear Customers
First and foremost we want to thank you on behalf of myself, my family, staff and friends for buying from, following on Facebook and your loyalty to Pick a Pumpkin and Chapman’s Lodge Farm.
I will admit that it is with great sadness and regret that this year, 2021, will be the last year that Pick a Pumpkin and Chapman’s Lodge Farm will happen and exist. Sadly a short while ago Essex county council from whom we rent the land made the decision to sell the land. We have been tenants of Lodge farm (which we dubbed with our name ‘Chapman’s Lodge Farm’) since 1912 but unfortunately when the farm was put up for sale it was with a price tag we were unable to afford despite our best efforts.
I am a 5th generation farmer of this land and there was the possibility that 6th and, with time 7th, generations may have farmed this land. My great grandad was the first tenant of this land, named Fred, after being moved from Upney (at the time owned by Essex County Council) where new housing needed to be built to accommodate an expanding London. This is where our story started here and now must sadly end. The farm was passed from my great grandad to my grandad (also named Fred) to my dad and his wife (my mum) and uncle (named Leonard, Gwen and George respectively; their eldest brother was named Fred who has a garden nursery in Cheshire. My dad and Uncle George are, sadly, no longer with us but my mum, Gwen at 97 and Uncle Fred still is at the youthful age of 101!) and now to myself. I farm with my nephew Christopher. Our main trade was a stall in Romford Market where we grew in produce as well as reputation and were at one point the longest standing stall holders there. When business didn’t warrant us being there anymore we decided to abandon the stall and try other markets. Pumpkins was something that we always grew and decided, one year, to open it to the public to pick your own. The sole intention of this was purely to allow the public to pick their own pumpkin right from where it grew; we always had surplus to sell and never realised there was a niche until we started this. We noticed other pick your own pumpkins had gone down the route of making it a ‘day out’ where we just wanted to keep it a simple for the pure reason we are full time growers of many items and didn’t have the time or the staff to establish this and second, we really didn’t want to! Pick a Pumpkin was born and you are seeing the fruits of ours and your labour (hope you like the pun!).
We did attempt to purchase the land and are thankful to ASC Finance who were our business advisors and raised the capital for us to purchase as well as giving us a business plan to be able to afford repayments! ASC Finance were the people who instilled in me the hope and optimism that it would be possible to actually buy this place, finally! Unfortunately, it was to no avail as the funds raised were not to be enough for the amount the highest bidder could pay. But I also want to thank them as these people were so supportive to our cause to try and buy the business and they are our MP Julia Lopez along with her assistant George Welch; they were always so prompt with responses and always used their influence to support us. We also want to thank Councillor Gillian Ford of Cranham Ward from the London Borough of Havering; she has the duty to listen to my story over Zoom and support us too. I also want to thank the NFU particularly Minette Batters (where I received a personal email from her) and the person she asked to liaise with us to support us, namely Eleanor Griggs. She was tasked with reading through our tenancy agreement in the hope there may be some clauses in there but there were not (unfortunately the acquisition of council agricultural land is not the same as the tenant acquiring a council house by first refusal; a quick search on the internet will settle this score very quickly). By no means least I want to thank my close family and friends who have encouraged and supported me throughout.
As you can see it is not like we haven’t tried and it is not without unmitigating support from a plethora of people, professions and backgrounds.
We are a pragmatic team and as much as we are saddened that Essex County Council took this decision we understand the background to the reasons. We are in the position to be in the unfortunate ‘cross fire’ of events that have led to this. For many years now local governments have had their budgets cut by central government and for a few of those years were stipulated to find savings rather than increase council tax; when council tax was allowed to increase there can only be so much that can be gained from this and as such anything that is surplus to requirements that is asset must be liquidated. Lodge Farm is one of those assets and as such was sold to another farmer for a sum we could not reach. I wanted to put in there that the purchaser is someone with agricultural interests as there were fears Lodge Farm would be built on for housing. But from what I hear and read this would be near enough impossible at the moment; so there is some good news there. We understand that Essex County Council, with the best will in the world, are just trying to find the best value for the public purse and that is what they have done. This doesn’t diminish my sadness and disdain for them as, frankly, I am the ultimate loser in all this! But I recognise the processes involved are there to serve the many and majority.
We are still here and will be here with plenty of pumpkins for you to purchase fresh from the land right up to and including Sunday 31 October. Please come along, pick your own pumpkin, maybe even some flowers (dahlias in case you’re unsure what they are – they’re purposely grown cut flowers and are precisely for that), come over and chat, spread the word, bring family and friends and most of all have a good time!
To this end I would like to propose a positive and optimistic ending. I would like to propose the possible Pick a Pumpkin page takeover by inundating the page or even your feed or even Facebook with images of your awesome pumpkins or even awesome images of your pumpkins (whichever it may be) and showing the world the power of positivity and fun you have had here at Chapman’s Lodge Farm and Pick a Pumpkin at picking your own pumpkin. This will also mean it will come back in your Facebook memory for years to come! Some nostalgia to look forward to!
Please do keep in touch.
All the best!
Ray.
There’s currently a special offer, pick up a wheelbarrow for £25 and fill it with pumpkins