Vineyard ready to produce in Last of the Summer Wine country

Jun 13 2009 Huddersfield Daily Examiner

Holmfirth couple’s Summer Wine

ITS SUMMER WINE is enjoyed throughout the world.

Now Holmfirth is preparing to serve up 30,000 bottles of real English plonk with the launch of the town’s first vineyard.

A total of 7,000 vines have been lovingly planted on a lush hillside in Holmbridge as part of couple Becky and Ian Sheveling’s big escape to the country.

The high-fliers decided to flee the rat-race in 2007, ditching their top careers, to follow Becky’s dream of returning to her Yorkshire roots.

Their two-year journey to create one of the country’s biggest wine farms from scratch – called Holmfirth Vineyard – will be featured on Channel Five’s Build A New Life In The Country on Monday at 9pm.

The couple – who lived in Warwickshire – risked it all to buy the £500,000 derelict Woodhouse Farm in August 2007.

Becky, 37, who travelled the world as a Formula One design engineer, said: “I was away all the time and I really missed Ian and my family.

“My job was coming to a natural end and I just wanted to go home and make a fresh start.”

The couple dreamed of renovating an old property and came up with the business idea of creating a vineyard.

Former King James’s and Shelley High School pupil Becky said: “We had talked about it before and had a couple of books but you’ve got to have the right soil for a vineyard, so we just concentrated on getting the house we wanted.

“Once we were here, we bought a chemistry kit to take soil samples and it came back as ph7 – the best soil you can get for vines.”

Becky and Ian were delighted and spent three months planting their 7,000 vines by hand, braving the winter temperatures.

Becky said: “We planted every day for three months in the snow, wind and rain. We were very fit by the end of it!”