The Farm
220 acres of the Upper Medway valley, from wet valley floor to wooded ridge.
The Setting
We're at Ashurst Wood in the High Weald National Landscape, six miles from East Grinstead. The farm straddles the Shovelstrode Stream — a tributary of the Upper Medway — with the land rising from soggy valley bottom to drier fields above.
About half the farm is the former parkland of Hammerwood House, designed in the 1790s by Benjamin Henry Latrobe (who later designed the US Capitol). It's a Grade II Registered Park and Garden, which means we work closely with both Natural England and Historic England. The Roman bloomery at Blacklands borders us to the south — a Scheduled Monument. History runs deep here.
We use the historical OS maps from the 1800s (freely available at maps.nls.uk) alongside LiDAR terrain data to understand what this land used to be. Rolling back the clock turns out to be a remarkably good guide to restoration — the land remembers what it wants to support.
Six Target Habitats
Wood Pasture
The big one. A third native trees, a third diverse grassland, a third scrub — following the historic Hammerwood planting patterns. This is what most of the farm will become.
Diverse Grassland
Species-rich meadow on the drier parcels. We cut hay to take nutrients out and starve the commercial grasses — making space for wildflowers to come back.
Enhanced Woodland
We're not planting new woodland so much as improving what's already here. Selective thinning, new rides, deadwood retention, riparian shade.
Scrub & Hedgerows
The corridors that connect everything together. Dense hedgerows and scrub belts linking all the habitat zones into something wildlife can actually move through.
Wetland & Floodplain
Reconnecting the streams with the land around them. Leaky dams, scrapes, ponds — and hopefully a full Stage 0 river restoration with our neighbours.
Traditional Orchards
Local apple varieties back in the spots where the old orchards stood. Fruit for the farm shop, habitat for pollinators and deadwood beetles.
Our Baselines
You can't manage what you can't measure, and you can't sell ecosystem services without proof. So we started with three specialist surveys to get a proper picture of where we are:
Soil Carbon
78 samples across the whole farm, surveyed by Verdant Carbon. This gives us the baseline against which all future sequestration gets measured.
Above-Ground Carbon
A 3D drone survey by FlyThru at 5cm resolution, mapping every tree, hedgerow, and scrub patch. We can repeat this over time to show accumulation.
Hydrology & Wetland
A full desktop study and concept design by FiveRivers — 10+ engineering drawings for wetland creation, floodplain reconnection, and water meadow restoration.
Want to See the Wider Picture?
We're not doing this alone. Five farms are working together across the catchment.