Trio of farms for sale in East of England

Strutt & Parker is starting the New Year with a trio of farms in the east of England.

Agent Tim Fagan is handling the sale of 1244-acre Mashbury Hall in Essex, four miles from Chelmsford. “I think it’s going to be the sale of the spring, if not the year, in the county. Apart from the Essex Farms (4000 acres launched last year), nothing of this size has been available for quite a while.”

Mr Fagan has guided the farm, which includes a six-bedroom period house, bungalow, stable yard, deconsecrated church and plentiful reservoir storage for irrigation, at £8m. He said this put the Grade 2 soil at about £4750/acre.

Danish and Irish farmers would be interested, but local farmers could also form a consortium to buy the land, he reckoned.

In Rutland, Charlie Evans is selling 543-acre Church Farm at Essendine in two lots for £3.3m. The main lot includes a six-bedroom stone farmhouse, 514 acres of arable land and 27 acres of grassland.

A further 57 acres of off-lying arable land is available separately. Mr Evans has not set separate guide prices for the lots, but said the land was priced at about £4500/acre.

Part of the main farmyard fell within Essendine’s development boundary offering scope for some sort of project, he added.

Medium and long-term investors are likely to provide much of the running for Westbourne Farm at Fulbourn, 3.5 miles from the centre of Cambridge, says Giles Allen, who is selling the 60-acre farm.

The arable unit, which Mr Allen has guided at £1.5m, comes with a seven-bedroom agriculturally tied house and 750t of grain storage.

“The farm is in a unique position in open countryside that neighbours some major development sites,” he said.

Mr Allen said, technically, the farm was being sold subject to a 17th century 500-year lease that expired in 2155. But because nobody was claiming the freehold and no rent had been paid for hundreds of years, the Land Registry had granted “title absolute” he said.

“Our lawyers are advising that when the lease expires the freehold will revert to the tenant by adverse possession.”

Farms for sale in the East of England.

Westbourne Farm

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