Thirty-one squawking, feathery new residents are running free in the wilds of Lincolnshire. The ex-battery hens, and one cockerel called Bertie, mark the beginning of Hannah and Chris Blevin’s new life running a 13½acre smallholding.

Peter’s Eden Farm, as the Blevins have named it, may be little more than a scrubby former potato field at the moment, but they hope that come the summer, it will be flourishing with neat rows of raspberry canes and sweet peas, all sheltered from the wind by 1,000 willow trees.

“We want to be as self-sufficient as possible,” says Hannah, 33, who has already launched a website to promote her homemade chutney and cordials. Chris, 37, gave up his job as a gearbox specialist with Ricardo Motorsport when they and their three sons, Peter, 6, Joel, 4, and Noah, 2, moved to a £250,000 six-bedroom house near Friskney, 13 miles from Boston in Lincolnshire. Unable to find a house with land adjacent, they bought 13½ acres, half a mile from their home.

Hannah says: “We have so much time for each other now. The television is generally off and the kids run around outside. They love it. They can’t wait to have their own pig.”

The Blevins are among the growing number of “greenshifters” turning their backs on urban life and buying a smallholding — larger than an allotment but with fewer than 50 acres — in search of the “good life”.

“Buying a smallholding is about the lifestyle,” says Liz Wright, editor of Smallholder magazine, which has seen the number of inquiries from city-based readers almost double in the past five years. The number of visitors to the Smallholder and Garden Festival has grown even more, rising from 5,000 in 2002 to 25,000 last year.

Wright says the new breed of smallholder falls into one of three categories: a hard core, which is aiming for true self-sufficiency; those who want to grow their own vegetables and keep animals, but who may also keep working to pay for the smallholding; and an emerging group that wants to conserve the countryside and create a wildlife habitat.

Smallholder magazine’s online forum provides a lifeline for first-time smallholders who post questions such as “How often should I worm my sheep?”, “My hen is broody, what should I do?”, and “Help! I’ve lost my pig, what should I do?”

More of a problem, however, is affording the land in the first place.

“Ten years ago it was easy to sell a Victorian terraced house in the suburbs of London and plough the profits into a farmhouse with 10 or 20 acres,” says Edward Oldrey of Rural Scene, a Wiltshire estate agency that specialises in selling smallholdings.

“Today, to get a smallholding for less than £250,000 you have to go to Scotland, where you can still find a three- or fourbed stone house with outbuildings and land for £150,000-£200,000. Second choice is Wales, where prices are higher but there are still plenty of opportunities, especially in Carmarthenshire and southern Powys. In England, the choice is limited, but the Fens in north Cambridgeshire, west Norfolk and south Lincolnshire is still a good bet.”

Labelled third-generation farmers, these new ruralists are part of what is, in effect, a third agricultural revolution. It is the reverse of the exodus from the countryside in the 18th century to the towns and cities to work, and then the intensive mechanisation of farming from the 1960s onwards.

“We are seeing a younger, more energetic generation of organic farmers revitalising agriculture and boosting local economies,” says Peter Melchett, policy director of the Soil Association. “The number of farmers’ markets is growing rapidly: in 2005 there were 550, with a turnover of £220m.”

In response to the rising number of urbanites flocking to the countryside, Phil Thomas and David John, who have separate farms in the valleys of south Wales, launched Down to Earth in February last year to help novice smallholders turn their dream into a functioning lifestyle.

One of their most successful courses is a weekend taster course for “Londoners” who want to get a better idea of farming before making the big leap. The course costs £80 per person per day. NewLandOwner, based in south Derbyshire, offers similar courses, including an introduction to the business side of smallholding.

“It is as easy to make a living on a 20-acre farm as it is on a 200-acre farm,” says Robert Jeffery, who set up NewLandOwner in 2000. “But for the first two years it is all investment and no income.”

Jeffery’s advice is for one person to keep working, which is exactly what Christopher Broadbent has done to make his smallholding, near Rye in East Sussex, pay.

Broadbent, 56, who lived and worked in London for more than 40 years, abandoned city life two years ago. He and his wife, Sarah, 36, run an online ethical store, Swallowtail Hill, and lecture on sustainable living.

He bought the cottage 17 years ago, “as a holiday home, like lots of nice middle class people do”, then began to extend it and buy up surrounding land, on which the couple now keep a flock of 50 sheep, chickens, Geoff the cockerel, Sid the goat, and Hilary the pig and her nine piglets.

“We’ve planted wildflower meadows, reed beds and are living a carbon neutral life,” says Broadbent. “When we go to the local pub, they say, ‘Here come Tom and Barbara’, just like in The Good Life. Sarah will be dressed beautifully, whereas I smell of pigs and have a textbook on climate change under my arm.”

— Down to Earth, 01443 229 203, www.downtoearthuk.net ; NewLandOwner, 01283 585 410, www.newlandowner.co.uk ; Peter’s Eden, 01754 820 733, www.peterseden.com ; Rural Scene, 01264 850 700, www.ruralscene.co.uk; Smallholder magazine, 01823 365 203, www.smallholder.co.uk ; Swallowtail Hill, 01797 260 389, www.swallowtailhill.com

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