Manor Farm today owned and run as a family business by Richard & Katie Jowett. The farm is the remnants of a holding that once extended to in excess of 2000 acres and until 1936 formed part of the Wilton Estate, owned by the Earls of Pembroke. It was leased in the 1600’s to the family of the fascinating antiquarian John Aubrey, who documented a great deal about the farm and the local area, particularly in his book ‘A Natural History of Wiltshire’. Here he describes the village and local landscape in detail and many features and field names are still recognisable today.

After 8 years of learning and working to bring things in line with our way of thinking, we are now looking forward to see how we can improve on our progress and increase the productivity of the farm while still pressing forward with our programme of enhancing the natural capital of the holding for the future.

Our first thought is to re-introduce cows as their way of grazing (pulling rather than the munching of sheep) alters the way a downland sward is depleted of grass and allows flowering plants to thrive.  To this end we are currently looking to buying a few Hereford heifers with the aim of building up a small suckler herd.