Natural Capital Approach

The owners have always believed good environmental stewardship is key to a healthy farm. We have always taken great care to protect wildlife, preserve soils and maintain water quality within the catchment.

As we make the transition away from a directly subsidised farming system we believe that we should be taking this approach to the next level, investing more to enhance the underlying natural capital assets with a view to trading ecosystem services within the landscape. This will involve habitat creation and management by design, a phased approach to eliminating agro-chemicals and synthetic fertilisers and actively building soil health through a regenerative system, integrated with livestock.

This will allow us to engage with emerging policies focussed on delivering net-zero; biodiversity net gain, carbon offsetting, nutrient neutrality, flood alleviation and much more, all whilst still delivering food through a more sustainable approach.  

Close collaboration with neighbouring landowners and inspirational partners has led to an ambitious project to deliver landscape-scale change. Covering just under 2000 acres North of Dereham the Wendling Beck Environment Project will help pioneer a new approach to land management in the UK. It brings together multiple landowners and environmental stakeholders to deliver river restoration, natural capital improvement, ecological enhancement and investment in ecosystem services within the Wendling Beck catchment, a chalk fed tributary to the important River Wensum. For more information please visit wendlingbeck.org.

SSSI - The estate is fortunate to have part of Rush Meadow SSSI within its boundaries. This ancient wet woodland and meadowland runs along a small tributary of the river Wensum. It is a breeding ground for Snipe, Lapwing, Sedge Warbler and Reed Warbler as well as many notable plant species including Water Dropwort, Narrow-leaved Water Parsnip, Blunt-flowered Rush, Southern Marsh Orchid, Marsh Valerian, Marsh Cinquefoil and Lesser Spearwort.

DEFRA Magic Map external link icon

Natural England PDF external link icon