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Rails Farm – Smallholding – near Sherborne in beautiful rural Dorset

Summer at Rails Farm 2024

Summer greetings to all our customers and friends. Yours, Christoph & Gaby & Isla

This year’s summer is a bit like a roller coaster. From very hot to rather miserable grey cold days. I have actually worn a warm woollen jumper almost every evening so far. Hence, it is a good time to look for new craft projects which end in having a nice cosy pair of socks, a scarf or a colourful new jumper. So why not purchase some hand dyed wool, one of our knitting kits for a beautiful seafoam scarf or wonderfully warm socks?

Private Tuition (online if required)

We are busy sowing seeds and planting hedges, as well as increasing our tutoring services for GCSEs & A-level and, for the first time, extending our tutoring to primary pupils by a very experienced KS1 and KS2 teacher.

Maths, Science and Physics

We both worked as research scientists in London for many years. I am a Physicist and a trained Science and Maths teacher. My wife is a post graduate Biochemist and she is in charge of growing produce to feed our family of five.

I have been working as a Maths, Science teacher and a Head of Physics for more than twenty years at several very successful schools. Those range from pupil referral units to grammar schools. Therefore, I am an experienced teacher on all academic levels, from entry level certificates to Oxbridge entrance interviews for A-level students. The key to true understanding is to engage students’ emotional intelligence as much as their academic potential. We will achieve this by relating everything to real life applications.

I am currently teaching Maths & Science at a local school in Dorchester and A-level Physics and Maths to tutees at our farm. I love Maths and Science and enjoy teaching and tutoring these exciting subjects

German conversation – Our German Roots

We are both native speakers and communicate bilingually with our children. So, if you want to improve your pronunciation and/or your fluency, come and speak to us. This might be for your holiday, your business or just the joy of speaking the language. Don’t hesitate to contact us. Dann koennen wir uns in Deutsch unterhalten.

We also now run two German study groups! One being aimed at beginner’s who are just starting out 🇩🇪, and the other a more advanced group for people looking to become completely fluent 🇩🇪 🇩🇪. details for them can be found on the German tutoring page


If you are interested in becoming a student, get in touch using our contact page!

“We cannot recommend Christoph highly enough. He stepped in to teach our son science at a very difficult time in his journey, when he needed to have alternative provision due to covid and mental health challenges. Christoph is extremely patient and thorough. He makes lessons interesting and enjoyable and worked from where our child was at to help him gain a good understanding of all three sciences, and make links across the curriculum. He incorporated our son’s interests and was able to be flexible to meet the demands of a very difficult year in terms of assessment and coverage of the topics.“

Karen – July 2021

For sale

Delicious vegetables and honey

Call in and purchase organically grown seasonal vegetables freshly picked when you arrive. We also have recently extracted honey.

You can find our produce stall at the Sturminster Newton country market every Tuesday morning between 9.00 and 12.00 o’clock.

Spun and carded WOOL is now for sale.

Our most recent blog posts

  • Mastering languages - One of the trickiest things when you are learning a new language is the pronunciation. You have to make sounds which just don't exist in your own language! There are lots of ways of making this easier: listening to native…
  • Half term fun! - Looking for a enjoyable half term activity (with a little bit of learning). Some craft, something to take home, some hot chocolate with toasted marshmallows, a little bit of fun French.
  • German conversation group - A wonderful time at the German Breakfast! Old friends and new contacts, homemade bread rolls, jams, spreads and apple juice and German specialities. We meet once a month for conversation in German (and English!)

About us

Our nine acre smallholding Rails Farm is located in rural Dorset near Somerset and Wiltshire. You can easily reach our beautiful piece of land from Shaftesbury, Blandford Forum, Gillingham, Stalbridge, Sturminster Newton, Yeovil and Dorchester. Our journey, to become self sufficient and ecologically sustainable started in summer 2013. We began to grow fruit and vegetables, planted trees for fire wood, and acquired chickens, geese, and sheep. A rain water harvesting system supplies water to our fields, a poly tunnel, and our domestic washing machine. Ducks, bees, and alpacas joined the menagerie, and there are more ideas in the pipeline.

Produce and livestock

We currently have twenty two Shetland sheep and four alpacas, all growing lovely soft fleeces. We have professionally spun and carded wool for sale, locally and sustainably produced from our own livestock.

Although we are not  certified, all our produce is grown along organic principles. Our soft fruit, fruit, vegetables and hay have not been in contact with any artificial fertilisers, pesticides or herbicides. We produce our fertiliser from our own organic material. This has either developed in compost heaps and worm composter, or supplied by pony and horse poo from good friends in the village. This is because we believe there is only one planet, and that deserves to be protected and to be treated with respect. Hence our MOTTO, ‘live organic’ which makes everyone happy and healthy.