The sight of new lambs in the fields is one of the most encouraging signs that spring is arriving in Cumbria.


However, at Low Beckside Farm, the task of delivering around 1,000 from more than 500 ewes also symbolises new beginnings of another kind.
For a long time the farm, at Mungrisdale, was used as an educational facility by Newton Rigg College, which closed in July 2021.

In the same month Low Beckside was taken on by a new owner, the Ernest Cook Trust, which is now using it to nurture a new generation of young people to work in farming and the outdoors.

The trust supports outdoor learning for young people across the UK.

This includes funding through grants and by using 9,000 hectares of rural landholdings as an income stream to fund charitable work and as sites to host outdoor learning.

Cumbria and Lancashire are one of three geographical hubs where the charity is concentrating its support, in addition to Gloucestershire and Leicestershire.
Chief executive Ed Ikin says the 400-acre Low Beckside, which is spread across three separate sites near Mungrisdale, will be a commercial farm first and foremost, but will also be used for a range of outdoor and environmental education.
“One of the key things for this site is that it’s going to work hard. We want it to be busy every day,” he said. “In an ideal world, there will be something happening every day in terms of either schools or further education or higher education, but also peers as well. We want to host fellow farmers, we want this to be an open site. We’re an educational charity and that means that we should be sharing what we’re doing. The site’s got to be well designed to host those numbers regularly.”
Low Beckside is already in use by apprentices, as well as students completing a GCSE in animal husbandry from Kendal College.

Ed says there is also potential for the site to host corporate leadership programmes focused on the environment or other events. 
The trust is currently working with 24 schools in Cumbria which have received money from its Outdoor Essentials Grant, which provides funding for activities such as improving school grounds, transport for trips to outdoor learning venues or clothing like wellies and waterproofs.

Other grants include money to support charities and non-profit organisations to employ outdoor learning officers.