Charles Abel • Summer tour
Norfolk’s finest Efficient food production, countryside sport and nature conservation were the focus of The Club’s summer tour. Charles Abel reports
(Above) Marcus O’Lone Club member and Sandringham land agent (Main picture) State-ofthe-art kit underpins Sandringham’s arable operations
IT was a tale of two great Norfolk estates as over 100 Farmers Club members gathered in East Anglia under bright summer skies. Both estates have strong family values, both produce premium quality foods and both have a keen eye on the environment. In the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year Sandringham was always going to be a popular choice, as the rural retreat, sporting estate and home of the horse stud of Farmers Club Patron, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II. It was perfectly complimented by the meticulously managed estate at Swaffham of Club Chairman Paul Heygate’s family. Further visits to top food processor British Sugar and wildlife campaigner Bill Jordan’s Pensthorpe nature reserve completed this impressive tour. Host for the Sandringham visit was the Queen’s land agent in charge of the estate, Marcus O’Lone, a member of The Farmers Club ever since he hosted a similar visit to Windsor Farms 17 years ago. The estate came into the Royal Family as a 7000 acre 21st birthday gift to Edward VII. Now expanded to 20,500 acres, it accounts for most of the land within a ring fence measuring 12 miles across and 6 miles deep, beside the Wash in west Norfolk. Owned by the Queen and managed by the Duke of Edinburgh it is a private estate like Balmoral, not part of the nation’s Crown Estate. This largest and most important asset of the Queen’s comprises 3500 acres of forestry and 6500 acres of in-hand farming, the rest being farmed by a number of tenants. Income stems from property, tourism and farming, the three generally balancing well, Mr O’Lone
04 • The Farmers Club Harvest Journal 2012
explained as he provided a fascinating insight into the workings of this famous estate. Efficient management ensures it is self-sufficient and able to finance its own capital requirements. Both SFP and ELS payments are claimed, but not HLS, on the basis that applying for a competitive payment would mean taking it away from somebody else. As a sporting estate Sandringham employs 15 gamekeepers, tasked with managing one of the nation’s foremost shoots. Since 1947 it has been a wild shoot and thanks to 700 acres of game crops, numerous game feeders and stringent vermin control maintains 2500 English wild partridge pairs, producing up to 15,000 birds on the ground for fantastic autumn shooting.
Partridges “Feeders are key to holding partridges on the estate and ensuring birds are in wonderful condition for laying, ensuring a large brood size,” explained Mr O’Lone, clearly a passionate game enthusiast. Walled gardens nearby, built with Edward VII’s Derby winnings, once supplied fruit and vegetables to the Royal Palaces. Today arable farming and fruit enterprises are purely commercial, although the Royal connection adds value to the 65 acre apple orchard, which successfully markets eight varieties of Sandringham Apple Juice – “juice fit for a King.” Another diversification introduced by the Duke of Edinburgh is a truffliere, planted with infected oak and hazel six years ago. In January truffle hunting dogs found the area’s first truffle, as well as wild