Philosophy

At Forest Crafts, our inspiration comes from wood and our livelihood depends upon it.

Come and visit our farm just outside Hatherleigh and share our vision of a sustainable future for Britain’s woodlands and countryside. Set in some of Devon’s most beautiful and unspoilt countryside, Lower Upcott farm comprises around 43 acres of woodland and pasture, both of which are worked by shire horses.

We are passionate about the future of the countryside and in particular British woodlands and our woodland craft heritage and skills base.

We are in the process of developing a self sufficient and sustainable enterprise which has a substantial educational element. We hope this will inspire both children and adults who visit us.

Here at Lower Upcott Farm, our aim is to look at farming in a very different way from conventional modern farming. Modern farming has been obsessed by output, and quality has often suffered. On this farm, we are obsessed by quality and we think that we can make the farming system work for us by actually going back in time and learning from methods and systems used in the past. In a nutshell, to use the best of the past with the best of the future. Our aim here is to produce top quality beef, pork and vegetables using environmentally friendly age old common sense methods, that do not have a bad impact on the environment.

Where possible, we try and incorporate these values and systems in our woodland crafts business. All the timber that we buy comes from British woodlands, mostly within 30 miles. We also have our own woodland, which we manage as sensitively as possible. All timber is extracted using the horses, and any timber which has no real value, is made into charcoal.

Testimonials