The Talbot Hotel

The farm has been in the family for 3 generations now, farmed by David Palmer all of his life. Lets take a step back and look at the history:

Grandfather William Palmer used to run the Bakery in Organford which is now the Tea Rooms. When he retired in 1956 he bought Organford Dairy Farm, the same year that David (our Dad) qualified from Kingston Maurward’s Agricultural College in Dorchester. When Grandfather fell ill David took over farming 250 acres.

The farm was principally a dairy farm which milked 110 cows and could boast that no outside cows came onto the farm since 1956. Our father worked very hard, 7 days a week making hay, growing corn, maize, silage and market garden vegetables which he sold locally in Wareham. As a child I can always remember visiting him (mum would take him tea & sandwiches) when he was busy making hay bales in the fields in the height of summer.

Farming has become so hard, there is so much more paperwork (all of the cows have to have their own passports) and so little money. In September 1999 he decided to sell the dairy herd to a local family of dairy farmers.

This was two years after Phillip came up with the idea of turning the farm into a visitor attraction for children & their families. It is wonderful that we have been able to keep the farm in the family although diversification was the only way to keep the land & family together.