Brilliant Bob Bayford

We planted the vineyard in May 2012, and unfortunately ran out of time to put the chestnut poles in at the same time as the vines. Big mistake. The lines were planted at 1.4m apart as per Gillian Pearkes minimum spacing observation. The option was to hammer the poles with a 14lb hammer. We managed to get 47 poles done in the lower clay part of the vineyard. Trying to put poles in the shingle and flint part by hand was a tad challenging and the blisters insisted we give up.

Brilliant Bob Bayford (the local builder) volunteered to come along with his Heath Robinson contraption and the job was done in a day. No matter what the challenge or indeed the weather, Bob and his team were there with good advice and skills to get the vineyard off the ground. There really is nothing better than local artisans who know the land