Disadvantaged children set to learn about farming on Lincolnshire Crown Estate

Sowing seeds, harvesting vegetables and feeding livestock - just a few of the activities children from disadvantaged areas in Lincolnshire will be offered in a new partnership.

The Crown Estate is teaming up with The Country Trust to bring young people onto it's farms, including Thorolds College Farm in Boston.

"Fundamentally, it's about building the familiarity and a closer connection to nature, the countryside, to farming and food production," said Jennifer Carter, from the The Country Trust.

"We want the children to develop confidence and a sense of curiosity whilst they're there to find out about their food and and how it's grown.

"To be able to just enjoy being in open spaces, to have fun, to experience that sense of calm that we can get from being in the countryside."

Schools taking part have a higher-than-average percentage of children eligible for Free School Meals, with 40 visits planned.

The programme follows a successful pilot which saw 180 pupils from four schools take part in farm days in Shropshire, Essex and Lincolnshire.

"The farmers work so hard to bring their jobs to life," said Jennifer.

"They're very passionate about what they do and they help us to transfer that to something that the children could understand.

"So as well as learning about the farming with the vegetables, the crops, the animals, there's so much that farms are doing to look after the countryside.

"Farmers will talk about how they are building wildlife corridors for owls, mice, we do pond dipping.

"If we can in our visits to the farm, we'll talk about soil health, how they look after that, and the children will get their hands into the soil.

The Crown Estate manages more than 185,000 acres of rural land, with the scheme also taking place in Shropshire, Northumberland, Romford and Windsor.