Mixed farms with conservation appeal launch in West Sussex

Two farms that had been home to the award-winning “Dirtydale” Simmental herd are for sale at £9.25m following the deaths of their owners.

Home Farm and Fold Farm near Billingshurst, West Sussex, had been farmed by Gordon and Jane Bell for more than 40 years and is where they ran a beef breeding and fattening unit across 826 acres.

That enterprise initially centred on the pedigree Simmental herd they named after a field at Home Farm.

Home Farm © HJ Burt

See also: Clutch of south-west farms and Cumbria holding

The cattle captured prizes at the Royal Show and the Ardingly and Kent County shows, before the couple and farm manager Mike Stocker shifted breed allegiance to Stabilisers.

Rowan Allan, of selling agent HJ Burt, says both holdings offer mixed farming opportunities and have good sporting and conservation potential.

The farms are being sold as a whole or individually, as two lots.

Home Farm is guided at £5.25m with its 450 acres of pasture and arable land and 152 acres of mature and recently planted broad-leaf woodland, plus a conifer plantation.

Modern farm buildings include a grain store with capacity for 1,000t, a seven-bay covered cattle yard, and a barn for fodder or machinery storage.

A traditional Sussex barn, granary and byres offer development potential.

The period farmhouse has four to five bedrooms and there is also a detached modern three-bedroom farm cottage which is subject to an agricultural occupancy condition.

At 376 acres, Fold Farm is the smaller of the two holdings.

Sixty-nine acres of the land is arable and sown with Sustainable Farming Incentive leys and the rest of the land base is made up of pasture, blocks of mixed mature broad-leaf woodland totalling 134 acres, and a two-acre lake.

Here there are modern farm buildings, including nine- and five-bay covered cattle yards and a seven-bay silage clamp barn.

The three-bedroom farmhouse is a period property but not listed.

Fold Farm is on the market at £4m.

The land on both farms is mostly Grade 3 but with some small areas of Grade 4. In the last year it has been let on short term agreements for fodder production.

North Yorkshire holding

Another mixed arable and livestock farm is being launched this week in North Yorkshire.

Kneeton Hall Farm is a 185-acre ring-fenced holding near Richmond, sitting at at 130-150m above sea level, with mostly Grade 3 land and acidic clay loam soils.

Apart from seven acres of amenity woodland, the land is either arable or permanent pasture.

Kneeton Hall Farm © GSC Grays

The farm steading features a modern general-purpose shed and a Dutch barn. There is also a range of traditional stone-built cattle courts, grain stores and outbuildings that have scope for alternative uses.

The three-bedroom Grade II listed farmhouse, which originates from the 16th century, is let on a rolling assured shorthold tenancy agreement. 

Kneeton Hall Farm has a farm business tenancy agreement in place until 10 September 2026.

The sale is subject to an overage which requires the buyer to pay the vendor 35% of the uplift in value if planning consent is granted for any use other than agriculture within 35 years of purchase.

GSC Grays is guiding the sale at £2.5m.

Organic pullet production

For buyers with an interest in poultry production, a pullet-rearing farm is being offered for sale in Devon.

Eastwood Farm at Hittisleigh, near Exeter, produces Soil Association-certified organic, free-range pullets from day-old through to point of lay.

The 63-acre holding has 25 ARM 52 Freeranger mobile poultry sheds, each holding 600 birds, giving an annual rearing capacity of about 33,600 mixed-breed organic pullets.

Eastwood Farm © Savills

Robin Fern of Savills says the farm has come to the market because the owners are retiring.

“It presents an opportunity for someone to either enter farming or expand on an existing well-regarded business in a beautiful area,” he says.

 An unusual feature of the farm is that it is powered entirely by renewable energy.

A 6kW wind turbine and a 12kW array of photovoltaic panels connected to two 15.4kWh batteries provide the whole farm with power.

The land base consists of pasture, traditional orchard and mature woodland.

Organic Entry Level and Higher Level Stewardship agreements are in place until March 2028. 

Residential accommodation is provided by a five-bedroom house that is subject to an agricultural occupancy condition.

Savills has set a guide price of £1.15m.