A YORKSHIRE TALE

Our Story

A family
passion

The Wilson family have been working the land in South Cave since the late 1940s. Henry, son of Robert Wilson, has spent his whole life on the farm; he has been a successful farmer of cereal crops, livestock and since 2012 – a vineyard. Henry planted the first 6000 vines completely by hand and tended to them with his wife Heather in the first few years before Tom (his son), returned home to help establish the rest of the vines that stand today.

Alice, Henry’s daughter, left her career in teaching to join the family full-time in 2014. A main part of her role was to work out how to best sell our East Yorkshire wine. She initially set up the weddings, which were her main focus while developing our wine brand and getting the buisness off the ground. With time, that developed into the building and running of our thriving cellar door, popular wine events, corporate offerings and of course in house wine making.

Together, the Wilson family and their wonderdul team have transformed the farm into a thriving agricultural enterprise, combining tradition with innovation to ensure its continued success.

The Gang

Henry (2nd generation)

— Chairman

Following in the footsteps of his father, having lived in South Cave his whole life, Henry has seen the land around him change drastically over the years. This was perhaps apt foreshadowing, for when he turned sixty-five, he made the decision to take the farm in a new direction – Henry was going to establish a vineyard. The rest, as they say, is history.

While technically retired, Henry still plays a very active role here at Little Wold Vineyard. You’ll often find him amongst the vines in the summer months or hosting one of our much-loved vineyard tours. He is a man with quite the story behind him and, if you ask him nicely, he may just tell you about it.

Alice (3rd generation)

—Business, Sales, Events and Marketing Manager and Wine Maker

Email: alice@littlewoldvineyard.co.uk

After a brief stint at university in Newcastle, and teaching career in Hull, Alice returned to Little Wold Vineyard in 2014. Although Henry had worked out how to plant the vines, he was yet to come up with a plan as to how he would make and sell the final product. Alice took on this role, developing the range of wines and establishing our weddings, events and latterly our Cellar Door. She has hosted hundreds of celebrations at Little Wold Vineyard, with her work in building the Little Wold Vineyard name landing her ‘Woman of Achievement’ in the 2018 Women in Business Hull Awards. Having carefully grown the team, she now has more time to focus on the important work that goes into growing and maintaining the business as well as being our winer maker.

Hayley

— Event Bookings Manager

Email: hayley@littlewoldvineyard.co.uk

Hayley joined the Little Wold team in 2021, bringing her extensive knowledge of the Yorkshire Wolds to the team. With over 11 years of experience as a Client Experience Manager, Hayley has a passion for creating memorable events. Her expertise in event planning, from individual client events to corporate away days, ensures that every celebration at Little Wold Vineyard is a special occasion.

Elaine

—Senior Event Co-ordinator

Email: Elaine@littlewoldvineyard.co.uk

A lifelong local, Elaine joined in August 2022. Despite what her role title suggests, Elaine has never shied away from helping the vineyard team during harvest, when an extra pair of hands makes all the difference. Her extensive local knowledge, coupled with her involvement in the Young Farmers Club, makes her one of the most well-informed members of the team on all things Yorkshire. Elaine’s attention to detail and passion for creating memorable experiences ensures clients feel confident and beautiful on their day.

Charlotte — Event Co-ordinator

Email: charlotte@littlewoldvineyard.co.uk

Charlotte joined the team at the end of 2025 and brings with her a wealth of event planning knowledge. Coming from a teaching background and with over 3 years experience working in the wedding industry, Charlotte considers organisation one of her strengths. Having her own little wedding stationery sideline, she also has a keen eye for detail ensuring that every event is executed perfectly.

Vineyard Operative: Oscar

Oscar joined the team in 2026 looking for something a bit different to do, and a job that would give him the satisfaction of seeing his hard work pay off. He’s already completed a range of courses and has proven he’s up to the challange of maintaining a vineyard on the Yorkshire Wolds! He’s an animal lover with three dogs at home.

Event Host: Beth

Beth started with our events team in 2025. With a real passion for wine and travel, she has brought a whole new lease of life to our wine events with her laid back approach and witty charm she the perfect combination of fun and factual.

Cellar Door Supervisor: Laura

New to the team, Laura came to work with us in June 2026. Living locally and with a love of the outdoors and all things community & events she brings not only a warm and welcoming deminer BUT also a wealth of experience in hospitality.

Volunteer Lead: Mark

Mark first came to Little Wold back in 2021 after he retired from a career in corporate banking. With a longstanding passion for wine, he quickly became an invaluable part of the team helping across the business and playing a key role in establishing our volunteer group.

The Volunteers

Our volunteers group was set up during lockdown by Hayley’s husband Mark. Being out in the vines gave people the chance to get outside in a safe envirnonment, learn and experience first-hand what it’s like to work in a vineyard. Six years on and the group is still going strong – helping with various tasks in the vineyard and winery. They meet weekly during the summer and spend time doing different seasonal tasks such as tucking in, bud rubbing, bottling and of course the big one – harvest!

Fancy joining them? Email Mark@littlewoldvineyard.co.uk

OUR HISTORY

Where the story begins

1947

Market Place Farm

Market Place Farm was once part of the Cave Castle estate but was bought in 1947 by Robert Wilson. Cattle roamed the grassy hillsides, while a dairy herd shared the flatter land with cultivated fields – where we farmed potatoes, sugar beet and cereals. The milk from the dairy herd was sold locally in the village, and we still have some of these bottles around the family farmhouse, where the original farmyard was located.

1970’s — 1980’s

Broccoli
pioneers!

In the early ‘70s, Market Place Farm had moved to pig farming, rearing around seventy breeding sows. As for crops, Henry made the decision to farm sprouts, and a variety of broccoli intended for the frozen food market. It was around this time that the farm took on hens for egg-laying, which were also sold to supermarkets. With the surplus eggs, a farm shop was established in the back of the old farmhouse, where they were sold alongside fruit and vegetables from a local supplier.

Little Wold red also demonstrates an amiable richness and depth that elevates it above most Rondo that I’ve sampled.

Erica Brown

2000’s

A Vineyard?

While visiting family in South Africa, Henry stumbled upon the idea of setting up his own vineyard. Doing some research before beginning his journey, he came into contact with Stewart Smith, an expert in vines, who suggested the land would be suitable. Soil samples were taken, and Henry discovered that a range of grape varieties could thrive on our land – including Rondo, Madeleine Angevine and Solaris, but also some more familiar varieties like Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.

2012

Putting Down roots

Little Wold Vineyard began in earnest in 2012, with the planting of a modest two-thousand vines. To keep costs down, Henry did the labour himself, with the help of his family where necessary. These early years are crucial for vines, as the root system has to expand through the chalky ground in order to gain all the nutrients needed for the plant to thrive in our often bleak Yorkshire climate.

2017

A Thriving Vineyard

In 2017, our tonnage increased from around two and a half tonnes to over six, highlighting the success of Henry’s original plans. This year LWV added two new wines to the collection: Three Cocked Hat, Little Wold Vineyard’s first red wine, and Chalk Hill White, a dry white wine. The new additions were met with roaring reception, meaning our still wines were almost completely sold out by January 2019. In response to this success, Tom planted six thousand new vines during the spring of 2018 on a new site on the opposite hillside known as Mount Airy.

2021/22

Adapting and Growing

COVID turned everything on its head. With a bumper crop and weddings and events suddenly on hold, we had to rethink how Little Wold could survive and continue to grow.

Alice introduced contactless vineyard picnics, intimate elopements and online wine tastings, helping us stay connected with customers and keep our wines flowing.

Rather than standing still, we took some brave decisions. We extended our tasting room, allowing us to welcome visitors year-round and broaden the range of vineyard and tourism experiences we could offer. We also secured funding to build our own winery, and in 2022 made our wine in-house for the very first time — producing around 12,000 bottles of still wine.

A challenging chapter became one of the most important turning points in Little Wold’s story

2026

Innovation and learning

2026 has been a year of new ideas and plenty of firsts. We launched our canned wines, becoming one of the first English vineyards to embrace this greener, lighter way of enjoying wine in smaller servings, including on board Hull Trains. Our team has grown too, allowing us to develop our events programme and create even more reasons to visit and enjoy the vineyard. Behind the scenes, we’ve continued to invest in our skills, with members of the team completing further training at Plumpton College, broadening our knowledge both in the vineyard and the winery. Our brilliant volunteer group has grown too, and their experience with us now stretches beyond the vines, with opportunities to get involved in the winery and see more of the winemaking journey. And to top off a busy year, we’re making our very first sparkling wine here on home soil – a particularly exciting milestone for us and another new chapter in our story.