Community.
Community.
Southalls of Norchard want to play a positive part in the community, whether in our hamlet of Norchard, parish of Hartlebury or local town of Stourport-on-Severn. We have organised parties for our workers and neighbours to jointly celebrate 2 Royal Jubilees, a Royal Wedding and our Centenary Party. It is great how playing some silly games and drinking local ale together breaks down barriers between different nationalities.
Each year since 2005 our farm football team have played an annual match against the local village side, and now compete for the Don Southall Memorial Trophy. The village supporters stand on one touchline and ours line the other. After the match we all repair to the nearby Village Hall for more of that local ale.
In October each year we host about 60 of the First Class of the local Primary School to the farm to learn about pumpkin growing. We always start by looking at the Timeline of artefacts found on the farm over the years - flint arrowheads and tools, an Iron Age quern stone for making flour, Roman coins and later musket balls and tobacco clay pipes are all part of the collection. The farm walk afterwards lets us show the children how the crops are grown sustainably and why it is good for everybody to buy food locally - it should be fresher, more nutritious, give food security and helps the local business community. At the end every child also goes away with a pumpkin!
In the International Community we have close ties with the Frontier Culture Museum in Staunton, Virginia, USA. A neighbouring farmhouse, built in the 1630s, was transported brick-by-brick from Norchard to Virginia and rebuilt as the English example of what pioneers were leaving when they emigrated to North America. They have other examples from Ireland, Germany and West Africa, amongst others which can be seen at www.frontiermuseum.org We farm the same fields as the original occupants of the 'Worcestershire House' and are always pleased to help the museum with their research projects.
