Beetroot at heart of £24m Notts holding with 2,000 acres

The retirement of the partners in one of the UK’s largest beetroot growing businesses sees the launch of a significant commercial farming enterprise at a guide price of £24m.

Stan White Farms, a family business operating near Misterton, Doncaster, was established by Stan White, who planted his first 1.25-acre beetroot crop in 1948.

Since then, he and his family have expanded the business to 1,973 acres.

See also: Mixed farms with conservation appeal launch in West Sussex

Charlie Bryant, of selling agent Brown & Co, describes the launch as a “farm for the future” opportunity.

The land is in 27 fields, averaging 82 acres and with the largest at 300 acres.

Beetroot fields at Carr House Farm © Brown & Co

The main steading is at Carr House Farm, which has 3,472sq m of buildings and the sale also includes Manor Farm and Misterton Carr Farm.

A further three yards provide agricultural storage and alternative development opportunities.

The land is mostly Grade 2 and 3, served by 184,000cu m of irrigation licence and with a further 365,000cu m currently being renewed.

There are two main dwellings – a modern four-bedroom house and a listed six-bedroom property – and five cottages, four of which are let under assured tenancies and the other occupied by a family member.

Historic overage agreements over the land and buildings at Misterton Carr Farm, due to expire in 2030, form part of the sale, requiring 50% of the uplift in value to be paid to the vendor upon the grant of planning permission for development as defined by the Town and Country Planning Act.

Carr House Farm, Manor Farm and Misterton Carr Farm are offered as a whole at £24m, but have also been lotted five ways.

Wiltshire bare land

A significant block of Grade 2 and 3 land is also coming to the market in Wiltshire – 357 acres at West End Farm near Ebbesborne Wake.

This launch features downland, permanent grassland, chalk arable land and mixed native woodland.

An ancient drovers route runs through the land, while other features of historical interest are a cross-ridge dyke and two bowl barrows, all scheduled monuments.

Two traditional field barns are included in the sale.

Woolley & Wallis has set a guide price of £3.615m overall and is also offering the land in two lots.

Land at West End Farm © Woolley & Wallis

Former RAF airfield and land

In Cumbria, a former RAF airfield set in 161 acres is one of the year’s more unusual launches.

Royal Air Force Kirkbride, near Wigton, operated as an aircraft repair depot from 1939 until the end of the Second World War, when it was used for both maintenance and for the disposal of redundant aircraft until 1960.

Since then, as well as aviation, the site has hosted motorsport events and offered storage facilities.

Will Douglas, of Savills, joint selling agent with Hopes, says the infrastructure and scale offered by Kirkbride Airfield and farmland make it well suited to multiple uses including storage, logistics, manufacturing and leisure.

Kirkbride Airfield

The offer includes 130 acres of farmland which is predominantly Grade 3 meadowland with deep silty and fine sandy soil historically in arable crops.

There is a dog agility field and buildings, runways and perimeter tracks.

The site is occupied on a series of short-term arrangements with the farmland let locally on annual grazing or mowing licences.

A Sustainable Farming Incentive agreement is in place, and additional income comes from aircraft landing fees.

Kirkbride Airfield and the farmland is on the market at a guide price of £1.5m.

Cumbria stock farms

Park Rigg © H&H Land and Estates

Also in Cumbria, H&H Land & Estates is launching two equipped livestock farms.

Park Rigg, near Easton, and Low Sorbies, near Roadhead, have appeal for a range of buyers, from expanding farm businesses to new entrants, reckons the firm’s John Wigham.

Park Rigg, with a guide price of £1.25m, has 118 acres of productive ring-fenced grazing and mowing land, modern and traditional buildings, and a four-bedroom farmhouse.

Low Sorbies © H&H Land and Estates

Low Sorbies, guided at £995,000, is 113 acres of grazing land with a range of farm buildings, a four-bedroom farmhouse, and planning consent for an agricultural worker’s dwelling.