Values

Community & Connection

We live “above the shop” and are part of our local community so we really care about our local area. We continue to let premises that provide key services to our local community and support the local economy: the post office, the local pub, a hotel, the village hall. A network of around 10km of public and permissive footpaths cross the Estate (and Quy Park), supporting mental and physical health through access to green spaces. We provide access to local, affordable quality meat through our pop-up local beef sales.

We are proud to be part of many other communities too: our farmer cluster, the “regenerative agriculture” community, BASE, the CLA, the NFU, the Historic Houses association, local food producers to name a few.

We love collaborating with other like minded individuals and making connections wherever we go. We have participated in Open Farm Sunday, hosted farm walks for local environmental groups and students, and opened our own home for small group tours because we like meeting people.

Custodianship & Climate

We are custodians for future generations of the landscape we all share.

Whilst politicians and parties come and go, we hope to be caring for this land in another 150 years time. Our investment, emotionally, is long-term, and so too is our investment financially. We make decisions not with the next 5 years in mind, but the next 50 years.

We are changing the way we manage land: by transitioning our arable land to be more nature-friendly (for “regenerative agriculture”); we manage land under both Sustainable Farming Incentive and Countryside Stewardship schemes (including the precious SSSI habitat); we undertake “conservation grazing” on our pastureland in Wilbraham; we are undertaking biodiversity projects on our land.

When it comes to climate change, as farmers we may severely affected, but we can also be part of the solution, for ourselves by making our land resilient, and for wider society by sequestering carbon. So we are prioritising soil health and assessing our carbon footprint.