Longest days draw out a range of new farm launches
Midsummer has brought a range of fully equipped farms and bare blocks of land to the market, ranging in value from £1.5m to more than £10m.
The largest offering is an 843-acre farm in the fertile Taunton Vale in Somerset, on the market with agent Robinson & Hall.
The owners of Halse Farm are selling up as they are relocating to the north of England to farm closer to existing family holdings in Scotland.
See also: Other new summer launches to choose from
Halse Farm © Flying Tiger Productions
The farm’s Grade 1 and 2 land with loamy clay soils principally grows wheat and other combinable crops, but some is also let for potato and maize production.
The enterprise is supported by modern farm buildings, including grain storage for 2,000t. An orchard of heritage fruit trees has recently been planted, and there is also a fishing lake stocked with trout.
Three residential properties have been developed from barn conversions – a four-bedroom farmhouse, a two-bedroom holiday cottage, and a part-converted, one-bedroom holiday cottage.
Halse Farm has a price tag of £10.18m for the whole, or is available in lots.
Court Farm © Strutt & Parker
Also in Somerset, Strutt & Parker is selling a ring-fenced 226-acre block of Grade 2 and 3 land with a guide price of £3m.
Court Farm, on the edge of Lullington, near Frome, is mostly arable land with areas of grassland and woodland. It is currently subject to a farm business tenancy that expires in September 2025.
Included in the sale are a traditional period barn and a modern agricultural building, suitable for storage or with development potential for commercial, amenity, or residential use.
Grassland opportunities
Tyn Y Coed Farm © Herbert R Thomas
In the Vale of Glamorgan, Tyn Y Coed Farm has also been launched.
This 116-acre organic unit at Bonvilston, owned by the Radcliffe Estate, operated as a dairy farm until 1999 and has since run suckler beef and sheep.
The farm is currently down to permanent pasture but has also grown arable crops.
Alongside a five-bedroom house, the farm includes a range of traditional and modern buildings.
One of these formerly operated as a dog boarding business, but now has planning permission for a two-bedroom holiday cottage.
Selling agent Herbert R Thomas says the farm, which is guided at £2.3m, will be sold subject to a 15-year overage entitling the vendors to 40% of gross income derived from a renewable energy lease.
Gapshield Farm © Savills
Meanwhile, in Cumbria, near the market town of Brampton, Savills is marketing a well-equipped upland grassland farm for £2.25m.
Gapshield Farm has 453 acres of meadow, upland, moorland and woodland coppices in a ring-fence. Its peat soils have restoration and carbon-sequestration potential.
The farm comes with an extensive range of modern buildings, a courtyard of traditional buildings with development potential, and a five-bedroom farmhouse.
Bare land blocks
Land at Laxfield © Clarke & Simpson
Two blocks of bare land are being sold in Suffolk through local specialist Clarke & Simpson.
At Laxfield, near Framlingham, a 224-acre block of farmland is on the market for the first time since 1949, with a guide price of £2.195m.
Selling agent Oliver Holloway describes it as: “Arguably some of the most productive arable land within Suffolk.”
He adds: “It has been well farmed in-hand for many years and regularly achieves wheat yields of over 11t/ha.”
Land at Broke Hall © Clarke & Simpson
With joint agent Knight Frank, the firm is also marketing a 136-acre block of parkland and woodland in a ring-fence at Broke Hall, Nacton, with direct access to the River Orwell.
The owners had bought the land as part of the Broke Hall Estate in 1948, selling the hall several decades later but retaining ownership of parkland and woodland.
“It is an incredibly special area of amenity land,” says Oliver. “The history of the land and aesthetic appeal make it a very attractive proposition to a lifestyle buyer.”
The land includes 63 acres of Grade 2 parkland and 73 acres of mature woodland. It has a guide price of £1.5m.