A 30-acre field at a popular Isle of Wight farm shop has been quarried and will be used to grow more local produce.

A sustainable land management plan by Harvey Browns, in Arreton, has reached a new phase.

A field on the approach to the new business has been returned to nature following the completion of phased quarrying and restoration.

The area is currently being left to regenerate but will next year be used to grow produce for sale in the farm shop.

In the meantime, restoration will intensify on the field opposite, and that too will be returned for agricultural use.

This leaves one more field to be quarried before the site is complete.

It will mean that by the end of 2024, around 500,000 tonnes of sand and gravel will have been quarried from the Arreton Valley site in phases by local company Wight Building Materials.

All aggregate extracted has been used for building materials on the Island – including the foundations and polished floor at Harvey Browns itself.

All quarried land has been – and will be – restored to the wishes of the Brown family who have been farming the area for generations.

“It is great to have reached this milestone and we are looking forward to planting our first crops on the newly restored site,” said Harvey Browns' Jemma Brown.

“We have had a lot of people ask what is going on with the field since the next phase of quarrying has begun there.

"We are happy to say that this work is all part of a sustainable approach to land management – sand and gravel will be extracted for local use and then the land restored back to agriculture.

“Growing produce on our own doorstep means there could not be fewer food miles between production and retail.”

One field worked earlier in the quarrying programme is now in use as a solar farm, providing green energy.

All quarrying has also been undertaken under the supervision of archaeologists from the University of Southampton, who have been gaining a picture of history of how the land was used in Roman times as well as in the bronze and iron ages.

Harvey Browns and Wight Building Materials each employ around 40 people.