A holistic approach to estate management: the story of a diversified CLA member

Diversification is not a new concept for farming and countryside estates. Board level management with a holistic approach to business, sustainability and people is, perhaps, less mainstream.

However, it is being embraced by a board of directors managing a 3,700-acre estate near Hampshire. Its board, comprising experts in legal, finance, investment, and property and rural consultancy, is looking at “the long view” to make Manydown Rural Estate fit for the future.

When Manydown was passed over as an ancestral seat by the Oliver-Bellasis family in 2008, diversification became important, with a focus on farming, woodland, commercial, residential property and recreational ventures.

“We are looking, as any large estate is, for opportunities to diversify,” says David Neal-Smith, who joined the board in 2020.

One of the latest diversification projects will, quite literally, bear fruit in 2025. In 2021, a vineyard was planted with chardonnay, pinot noir and pinot meunier grapes – the same varieties used in fine French champagne. The vines take three to four years to establish, so this year is the first full harvest.

At full production, the 50-acre vineyard, established in conjunction with Hambledon Vineyard, will grow enough grapes to make more than 100,000 bottles of English sparkling wine a year, produced at Hambledon Wine Estate.

“The quality of the soil in this area of the south east is identical to the soil type found in the Champagne region,” says David. “We considered back in 2020 this would be a good opportunity – we know Hambledon well and it is a good fit.

“The vast majority of farming on the estate is combinable crops coupled with stewardship areas, but the vineyard gives good diversification.”

The estate grows wheat, barley, triticale, oats, oilseed rape, borage, beans, grass seed, maize and rye. Barley is supplied to the brewing industry, oats to makers of breakfast cereals, and oil from oilseed rape for food products. Borage is grown for use in pharmaceutical products. Maize and cereals are used in green energy production with the remainder for livestock feed.

Many areas of the estate are in Countryside Stewardship (CS) and Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI) schemes. Most arable fields have soil management plans and 15% of the area has a ‘no use of insecticide’ agreement. There are areas of companion cropping and winter cover, crops for winter bird food and nectar flower mix, flower rich margins and field edge buffer strips.

Farming is managed by contractors EC Drummond (Agriculture), and in recent years has made a marked effort to lessen the environmental impact by using GPS to reduce use of fuel and pesticides, targeted cultivation and direct drilling.

In the late 1950s the Oliver-Bellasis family embarked on large-scale refurbishment of tenant properties, and in the 1980s they started researching the effects of chemicals in farming, created conservation headlands and beetle banks, and re-established miles of hedgerows. In the 1990s, a farm shop opened selling meat reared on the estate.

“There has been a very strong reputation of undertaking a sustainable approach to farming and environment going back many decades,” says David. “Hugh Oliver-Bellasis retains a strong interest, and the estate is carrying on the work he and his brother Charles started. A lot of the work has morphed into the CS and SFI schemes farms operate within now.”

More recently, 350 beehives have been established, and honey from some of these is sold in Marks & Spencer under the ‘Select Farms’ brand. You will also find willow, grown in the estate’s 350 acres of woodland, used to make cricket bats by JS Wright and Sons.

The estate is working on a modern-day programme of refurbishment for its 15 tenanted properties, ranging from small cottages to former farmhouses. Redundant farm buildings have been converted to commercial units that are let to independent businesses, including a digital design company, IT specialist, florist, steel fabricator and panel supplier. There is also a nursery tenant, which creates a facility for the estate village of Wootton St Lawrence.

Work has just finished on the conversion of a 19th-century stable block into high-quality, energy-conscious rural offices. A new farm shop in a redundant farm building has been approved, and the estate wants to build four traditional energy-efficient homes to let to local people.

However, conditions and time-scales set by planning authorities “demonstrates scant interest towards economic development in rural areas”, says David.

“The Manydown Rural Estate takes a long-term view and to do this we have to put back into the estate to maintain its fabric, provide for the community and create sustainability both in terms of the business and the environment. It takes more than pure farming income, which everyone recognises is tough.”

The alternative, quite often, is that traditional estates get broken up, farmed by large and remote operators with no commitment to community.

“It becomes more about the opportunity to maximise value from the land, rather than the holistic approach we are trying to achieve,” says David.

The estate, partly in the North Wessex Downs National Landscape, has increased public access with foot and cycle paths connecting neighbouring villages, and installed hard tracks to reduce the need for farm and estate vehicles to use narrow public roads.

The biggest challenge in rolling out these different ventures has been planning, according to David: “It is the time it takes and the cost. The requirements of planning authorities are exceptionally demanding. We believe we are undertaking the right things for the environment and community but this is not always recognised by planners.”

“This is not large-scale, corporate development but rather appropriate diversification to secure the future of a rural business and hopefully a rural community.”