Recently in diversification Category

Remember the farming lady who set up a bra business called Ample Bosom?

Well here's a farming man who could be big in pants (as it were!)

I’ve heard of all sorts of diversifications over the years, but this is a first: a barn being converted into a swingers club.

The man behind the scheme is ex-dairy farmer Roger Stanbury who’s created Club Vanilla, a place which is being billed as “a purple-decked lounge for mature swingers”.

Mr Stanbury, who was a dairy farmer but has moved into running a camping and caravanning site, is unapologetic about his new venture.

He reckons “entertainment for discreet but consenting couples” will cause less trouble than the discos he had been holding for teenagers.

Is this someone's idea of a joke? Well?

I've made my views on caravans perfectly clear in the past. And now this - a copy of Camping and Caravanning arrived in the post for me today.

Huskies have already been put to use on a mush trail in North Yorks - now someone in the Dales has decided to use hair from them for clothing.

We’ve covered ladies underwear and women's socks so I figure it’s time for something for the guys.

How about this – a range of men’s boxers and briefs with cheeky designs aimed at the farming community.

If you're offering farm-based B&B or self-catering accommodation, then you've got an advantage if you're in Yorkshire, it seems.

Diversification used to be the buzzword in agriculture. Nowadays, it’s more like a necessity.

In the old days, it was a case of either opening a farm shop, offering B&B or, for the more ambitious, building a golf course. Now there is a multitude of many and varied diversifications.

I recently visited an interesting place in Warwickshire, which has found a rather novel use for some spare land.

I hope I'm not contravening my cute animal picture moratorium by publishing this picture - but I reckon I'm safe.

Farm diversifications come in all shapes and sizes. Bras were Sally Robinson's brainwave; in the case of Tina Rivett, it was socks.

News just in, though, of a family diversifying into husky trekking. Where?, you might well ask. Alaska, perhaps? Or Sweden? No, the North Yorks Moors!

After the big-bra farming lady, now it’s big-footed farming women.

There’s a farmer’s wife in Norfolk who runs a business called Thox, selling stylish socks for the lady with larger feet.

Farming families are an inventive lot and you hear of them starting some imaginative new businesses.

The most enigmatically named one of them all, though, has got to be Ample Bosom.

Farm diversifications are wonderful things - and there are some fascinating ones in Britain.

One in Northumberland is even planning to apply for a zoo licence so it can keep even more exotic animals than the ones it's already got.

White House Farm Centre, which was started by co-owner Heather Hogarty when she took over the family farm, currently looks after everything from sheep and pigs to llamas and a giant boa constrictor.

The centre, which is currently celebrating its 10th anniversary, has seen visitors more than treble since it opened its doors in 1997.

Needless to say, vistors are warned that they can't touch the tarantula or the scorpion!