The Green family have been farming in yorkshire for at least 200 years. The first records we can be sure of, relate to Thomas Green who was born in 1806.  He moved to Hunters Hill Farm in Ryecroft on the outskirts of Bradford in 1830s. Thomas’s son David farmed at Lower Crow Nest Farm, Lightcliff (one of the farms in this area now well known thanks to Ann Walker and the Gentleman Jack TV series). When Thomas Green died in 1888 his son David took over at Hunters Hill Farm aswell.  They had a mixed farm with a dairy herd and sheep. David had a son called Thomas who became a butcher in Bradford.  Thomas traveled to Australia in the early 1890s but returned to Ryecroft to farm with his father a few years later. He and his wife Jane also took on the tenancy of Ivy Farm, which was approximately 30 acres, at a rent of £46 per year.  

In 1909, Thomas read a notice in the Yorkshire Post advertising that Court Green Farm in Cloughton was available for rent and he put in a tender.  The farm which was at the time owned by Harry Donner, was 113 acres in size.  Thomas managed to agree a rent of about £475 (35 /-  per acre). The family made the move to Cloughton with 26 cows, 2 horses, 2 dogs, 2 men and various implements – all of them loaded onto a special train carriage. And so, Thomas, his wife Jane, father David and three children; Mary Eric and Lydia began  farming at Court Green.  They were milking cows, fattening pigs and had a flock of Leicester sheep.  All land work was done using heavy horses. 

Thomas fought with the Green Howards in WW1 but when decomisioned returned to Cloughton and the family farm.  In 1922 he was able to buy 220 acres of land at Appleton Roebuck, near York, the property called Woolas Hall Farm. Eric then took over running Court Green Farm whilst his father Thomas spent his days between the two farms. By 1928 Eric was a busy man – he had two retail shops in Scarborough selling milk and meat produced on the farms.  They now also fattened store cattle and he had just purchased his first tractor, a second hand Fordson.  Six full time men were employed and two girls in the shops.  A few years later in 1935, Eric took on a further tenancy at Killerby Hall Farm in Cayton near Scarborough. Travelling to and from Woolas Hall Farm, near York at least twice a week was becoming a chore and so when given the chance it was sold.  The proceeds from this sale were then used to purchase Killerby Hall and Killerby Grange and land when it was put on the market in 1943.  The hall became the family home.

By this point the family were farming 290 acres in Cayton, 113 acres at Court Green Farm, Cloughton and also a further 50 acres in Cloughton which had been offered by the Duchy Of Lancaster. Eric and his wife Louisa had five children and over time, the farms were split between their 3 sons. George took on the tanancies in Cloughton in about 1946 when he returned from serving in the RAF.  The Duchy of Lancaster had purchased Court Green Farm from Harry Donner and so all land in Cloughton, was rented from them. In 1968, Town Farm in Cloughton became available and George and family moved to this larger farm giving up the tanancy at Court Green. Rent for 186 acres was £1210 or £6.50/ac. A year later, a neighbouring  Duchy farm, Cloughton Fields Farm was also taken on by George.  This further 168 acres came at an annual rent of  £930 or £5.50/ac 

George was a successful farmer, over the years he kept dairy cattle, fattening cattle, breeding pigs, fattening pigs, and sheep alongside his arable enterprizes. Land was purchased in Cloughton and Burniston. Some was just small fields within the villages but he also bought Home Farm, Hayburn Wyke, which was a farmhouse with 140 acres. George and Pam’s son John (Joe) took over the Duchy tenancies in 1992 when George retired due to ill health.  At this time, the business rented 382 acres from the Duchy. The Duchy continued to offer further ‘packages’ of land to Joe as they became available.  Farming in the 2000s was not easy and more land was needed to make the business viable.  In 2001 fortunately for Joe, Beck Farm and Low Farm in Burniston and part of Court Green Farm were added to his tenancies.

Scalby Lodge Farm was added in 2006 and in 2023 another 180 acres of land were taken on at Scalby alongwith foulsyke farmyard and stables bringing the total land farmed to approximately 1550 acres.  Green Farming Ltd, as the business is now called, consists of a mixed farm – fattening cattle and arable crops of wheat, barley and oil seed rape. The farm has also diversified by offering DIY livery at Beck Farm and Foulsyke Farm.  Investment in large modern machinery means that only three men and 2 tractors are required on the farm.

In 2015, Joe and his wife Debbie along with their children Henry and Charlotte, moved house to Fields Farm, Cloughton.  Town Farm farmyard, had been sold for development and so a new home and a brand new farmyard were built on what had previously been the site of Cloughton Fields Farm. Henry after moving away and working on large farming estates in norkolk and Linconshire came home and became a joint tenant with his parents in 2016.  In 2022 he married Rhianne and they moved into Home Farm, Hayburn Wyke.