About us
Hemp North® was founded by Hugh Wrangham and Alistair McLeod in 2021 in Northumberland, UK. Our aim was to make growing industrial hemp viable on conventional family farms, by introducing British-grown hemp seed products to the local marketplace.
Industrial hemp is a valuable spring-sown crop with numerous uses and is beneficial to both the soil and environment. Popular Hemp products, however, are mostly imported into the UK from other countries in Europe, as well as from Canada and China. The value chain for British grown hemp products is currently under-developed, hindering the viability of growing the crop on UK farms.
After completing an MSc dissertation in 2019 on the feasibility of growing hemp in Britain, Hugh obtained the necessary licences and sowed the first crop in Northumberland in early 2021. Hemp North was subsequently founded, using Ali’s experience in marketing and business development, to sell the new British-grown, highly nutritious hemp seed products and reintroduce hemp into the farming system as a sustainable break-crop.
Our Mission
Hemp North Ltd is bringing Hemp products grown in Northumberland, to the UK market. Our long summer days are perfect for growing big healthy hemp crops, which are then packaged by us and sold to you direct
We are supporting local farmers and communities and looking to spread the knowledge and benefits of growing hemp for the environment and for you.
As well as keeping our carbon footprint
down by growing and selling locally,
Hemp boasts 4x the CO2 sequestration compared with the same area of forestry
It is also one of the fastest growing plants on the planet alongside bamboo.
Unlike most other hemp products and providers in the UK Market. We take pride in growing, dehulling and packaging all our own hemp and encourage local farming to get onboard, as well as selling to a local market.
Always keeping our carbon footprint to a minimum
About Hemp
‘Hemp’ describes industrial crops of Cannabis Sativa specifically bred for high-quality fibres, other biomass materials and for the highly nutritious seeds (technically nuts), for both human and animal consumption. Industrial hemp has been legal to cultivate in the UK since 1993, but since then it has only been grown at a small-scale relative to the mainstream arable crops. Hemp is cultivated on a much wider scale in other parts of Europe, USA, Canada and China. There is an abundant international market for hemp products and a strong market for certain hemp-derived products in the UK, most of which is currently imported.
Our Farm
We grow our hemp seed in North Northumberland, not far from the Scottish border. We farm approximately 600 hectares of varied soil types from sandy loam, to silty loam and some heavier clay loams. Our farm sits between a river valley and the sandstone hills, with expansive woodland, moorland and permanent grass pasture. We have grass-fed sheep and cows which provide farmyard manure used as an organic fertiliser to boost our soil health. We grow predominantly winter cereals including Wheat, Rye and Barley, as well as Oilseed Rape and Field Beans in rotation with Industrial Hemp. We are constantly improving our system, steadily expanding our crop rotation with a developing focus on soil health and sustainability in mind. We want to farm in collaboration with nature as much as possible and growing hemp is another key factor in our move to a system with regeneration and conservation at its core.
We welcome visitors on farm. If you would like to visit us, to see hemp growing in the field and discuss what we can offer you or your business, please do get in touch .