The Great Barn At Wimpole Hall Farm

Wimpole Hall is owned by the National Trust, and Tamara and I along with a couple of million others are members.

As well as the Hall there is the farm. It is a working farm that adheres to the principle of a circular economy. That means that it uses the products of the farm to feed the land – water and natural fertilisers.

The centrepiece of the farm is the great barn designed by the architect Sir John Soane for the 3rd Earl of Hardwicke in 1794. It was the Earl’s vision to create a working farm, although at that time there was no other route to running a farm beyond a circular economy. Then came artificial fertilisers and everything changed.

Now we are turning full circle because in calculating the health and economic viability of a farm, we have to look at the consequential costs. A ‘normal’ farm brings in artificial fertilisers and consumes outside water. The expended fertilisers run off into the streams and rivers and the local Authority has to clean it up. If that cost was put back on the farm, then suddenly farms operating a circular economy look a lot more profitable – as they rightly should do.

I wrote about this in 2019 when we went to a talk at the Hall on the true cost of farming and whether circular economies can support Britain and its needs (they can).

Rare Breeds

As an extra bonus, as it were, the farm is also one of just a few handfuls of sites that are recognised by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust. There are several breeds of cattle (including White Parks, Longhorn, and Irish Moiled) and several breeds of sheep, and also of pigs and goats.

The Irish Moiled were in Stackyard just across from the barn, about ten cows, the bull, and two youngsters born in May.

The White Parks are usually in a big field – probably a couple of hundred acres – near the entrance to the National Trust property, and they are very pretty – white with black noses.