Yorkshire Wolds charity garden welcomes the touring GYSheifer

A popular National Garden Scheme‘Yellow Book' garden that is home to an award winning brewery is opening for the 24^thconsecutive year on 2^ndand 3^rdJune. On the opening day, it will share its top of the Wolds venue with a six foot tall galvanised steel sculpture of the famous Craven Heifer, dubbed GYSheifer.

The opening of the Wold Newton garden, Hunmanby Grange coincides with the annual open weekend for award winning Wold Top Brewery and the National Garden Scheme Festival Weekend that will see over 300 gardens open to the public in England and Wales.

Entry costs £5 for adults and is free for children. Visitors will be able to tour the beautiful garden that Wold Top Brewery co-founder and horticulturalist, Gill Mellor has created despite its exposure to the elements and a challenging soil. Gill will be on hand to share her stories about how the garden has evolved over a quarter of a century into a series of gardensthat have been developed depending on shelter, aspect, views and function.

Children will be free to explore the wild and wooded parts of the garden and the garden's lawns will be available for visitors to picnic on.

There will be plants on sale and refreshments will be provided by Field and Forage, whose cattle graze in Hunmanby Grange's dale.

Visitors to the brewery will be able to see where and how the ales are made using home grown barley and water from the farm's borehole.  The brewery talks will be wheelchair accessible.

On the Saturday, visitors will have the opportunity to take a selfie with theGYSheifer and enter a competition to win a family ticket to this year's 160th Great Yorkshire Show.The GYSheifer is a one off, bespoke, life-size sculpture in steel which stands 6ft high, 4ft wide and 11ft long. The original Craven Heifer was a national phenomenon in the 1800s and people would pay to see her. She remains the largest heifer ever shown in England and lived in the same era as the first Great Yorkshire Show. Hunmanby Grange is one of five stop off points for the sculpture ahead of the Great Yorkshire Show opening on 10^thJuly.

Gill Mellor said: "We're delighted to have raised over £40,000 for the National Garden Scheme's nursing charities over the last 24 years and to share our garden with people of all ages and gardening ability.

"Visitors will also be able to see the stunning location that clients of our wedding and events venue, Muddy Souls Events, benefit from."

The gardens and the brewery will be open between 11am and 5pm on both days and proceeds from the entry money will go via the National Garden Scheme to nursing charities including Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie and Parkinson's UK.  St. Cuthbert's church in neighbouring Burton Fleming will benefit from the proceeds from teas and coffees.

The National Garden Scheme was founded in 1927 to help fund the essential work of district nurses. Ninety one years on, its volunteers continue to raise money and in 2017, the National Garden Scheme donated a record £3m to charity.

Last year, Hunmanby Grange's open weekend raised a record £4000 for National Garden Scheme charities.

For more information and directions to the farm that houses the gardens and the brewery, please visitwww.woldtopbrewery.co.ukor call Anne Duerden on 01723 892222.

Ends

Photo caption: 

GYSheifer travelling through Bolton Abbey. Photo the Great Yorkshire Show and Charlotte Graham The GYSheifer will be at Hunmanby Grange

For more information or to arrange an interview with Gill Mellor, please contact Tracey Baty at three60 marketing on

Direct line:01430 871360

Mobile:07971 961574

E mail:traceybaty@three60 marketing.co.uk

Web:www.three60marketing.co.uk

Notes to editors

1. For more information about Wold Top Brewery, please visit www.woldtopbrewery.co.uk.
2. The Mellor family have farmed 600 acres high on the Wolds for generations and the farm diversification brewery project began in 2003 when they required another form of income from the farm.
3. The Wold Top Brewery range includes Wold Top Beer, Wold Gold blonde beer, Headland Red, Anglers Reward, Scarborough Fair IPA, Wold Top Against the Grain, Scarborough Fair and Marmalade Porter gluten free beers. More information on the range of beers can be found here http://www.woldtopbrewery.co.uk/beers/
4. For more information about the National Garden Scheme, please visit www.ngs.org.uk
5. Since its foundation in 1927, The National Garden Scheme has donated over £50 million to its beneficiaries
6. Charities supported by the National Garden Scheme include the Queen's Nursing Institute, Macmillan Cancer Support, Marie Curie, Hospice UK, Carers Trust, Perennial, Parkinson's UK and MS Society. Further donations are also made.
7. For more information about the GYSheifer, please contact Jo Francisco, PR Manager Yorkshire Agricultural Society on direct line: 01423 546215, mobile: 07954 007414 or e mail: jof@yas.co.uk.