Home-grown hay, made by hand on our own Sussex fields.
We are the Brassfields, a family who grow, cut, dry and bale our own meadow hay and haylage at Chalk Lane on the Manhood Peninsula. What you feed came off our land, nowhere else.
Every bale starts as grass in one of our own fields.
Martin and Christine Brassfield have worked this ground at Sidlesham since 2003. We never buy in and we never blend. From the first cut to the load on your trailer, it stays in the family’s hands, made the unhurried, traditional way.
Trusted by horse owners, farmers and smallholders alike.
For the horse owner
Sweet, soft, low-dust forage that stays much the same from one bale to the next, so liveries, yards and single ponies can settle into a steady feed they know.
Hay for horses
For the farmer
Meadow hay and wrapped haylage for cattle, sheep and goats, with honest weights and no surprises. Collect from the yard or let us bring it over by trailer.
Forage for stock
For the smallholder
A few bales for the back paddock or a trailer for the winter, whichever suits. There is no minimum here, so take what you actually need and no more.
How ordering worksOne harvest, finished three honest ways.
It all grows on the same Sidlesham ground. What sets each apart is how we bale and finish it once the grass is cut and dried.
Meadow Hay
Traditional sweet meadow hay, mown, turned and left to dry in the sun, then baled only once the moisture is right. The everyday feed for horses and stock.
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Haylage
Grass cut a touch greener, wilted, then baled and wrapped to keep its goodness in. Soft and near dust-free, a kind choice for horses with delicate lungs.
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Small Bales
Old-fashioned small square bales that one person can lift, stack and store with ease. Just right for private yards, smallholdings and the back paddock.
Read moreThe same family
Martin and Christine, twenty and more harvests in, still on the ground they started with.
Off our own land
Chalk over light loam, a southerly slope and good drainage, all cut from our own fields.
Made in its own time
We wait on the weather and the sward. Hay you rush is hay you regret, so we don’t.
Close to home
Trailer runs across West Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey, or load up at the farm gate.
Rooted at Chalk Lane, Sidlesham, since 2003.
Martin and Christine Brassfield started Downs View Nurseries Ltd in June 2003 on family land tucked between Chichester Harbour and the South Downs National Park. Every summer since, we have made hay on the same fields.
The Manhood Peninsula lends itself to it. Light loam over chalk, a southerly aspect and free-draining soil give us a sward that shrugs off a wet season better than most. We grow, dry and store the whole crop here, so whatever you take home came straight from our ground.
More about the farmRunning low on forage?
Ring Martin or drop us a line and we will come straight back to you, usually the same day.