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Today, the area’s principal commercial activity is farming
with a focus on cereal and vegetable cultivation and sheep
rearing.
At Eastling, little
remains of “traditional” fruit growing and the extensive
cherry orchards, famed for their Spring blossom until their
demise in the 1960s.
The Belmont Estate
The major landholding at Eastling is the
Belmont Estate, owned by the Trustees of Harris (Belmont)
Charity. It is managed by Bidwells Property Consultants
with the assistance of a resident Administrator living in
Belmont House and a Farm Manager living at Hockley, both
in the neighbouring parish of Throwley.
As well as the
Manager, the farm employs three farm workers. The Estate’s
1,700 acres of farmland is cropped with cereals, oil-seed
rape, peas and beans.
In 2000, the Estate
entered into a Countryside Stewardship Scheme with the Ministry
of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (MAFF). Over the next
three years, approximately 150 acres will be returned to
chalk and grazing pastures. A major hedge planting and coppicing
programme is also being undertaken. This will involve cutting
back hedges to ground level to allow rejuvenation, filling
up gaps and planting new hedges with, in the first year,
approximately 1035m of new hedging being introduced.
On the Estate there
are 700 acres of woodland, managed through the Bidwells
Forestry Department. Recently, a major ride clearance project
has been carried out throughout the woodlands, involving
much replanting and maintenance work.
The primary objective
of the Woodland Management Team is to ensure that this valuable
amenity is maintained for the future. The woods are also
very important to the shoot enterprise, which is run as
a very successful syndicate.
Communication is
of paramount importance between the three enterprises -
the gamekeeping, the forestry and the farm - to ensure that
all work successfully together. A good example of this is
the management of a pest control programme for squirrels
and rabbits which, despite an outwardly appealing appearance,
can pose a serious threat to the trees in the Estate’s park
and woodlands.
Belmont House is
open to the public during the summer months; currently there
is a major reinstatement project being carried out in the
walled kitchen garden, which Bidwell’s view as “very exciting
and, hopefully, an added attraction for visitors”. An historical
and restoration survey is currently being carried out in
the Belmont Park grounds and it is hoped that this will
be incorporated in a parkland Countyside Stewardship Scheme.
The nearby Faversham Golf Course has an excellent reputation
for its fine 18-hole course set in beautiful parkland.
In addition to
the above enterprises there are over 40 tenanted houses
and cottages. There are also two small farms that are let.
In autumn 2003,
the Estate will be planting a three-hectare wood near North
Court, Eastling. This will be an experimental Oak plantation,
created in association with the Oxford Forestry Institute.
Native Oak saplings will be planted in a matrix formation
so that they can produce good rootstock. Good news for future
generations and certainly for the future of this beautiful
native tree.
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