When, five years ago, farmer Boaden Lyne, whose grandfather had bought Kestle Barton in the late 19th century, came to an age for retirement the future of the place seemed uncertain.

Boaden had kept the beautiful old barns in working order – but only just. It was an increasingly difficult task to keep the weather out and he wasn’t altogether sorry to shed the responsibility. But he does miss the old place.

All our fields are now managed without chemicals and unploughed, so that the carbon sequestration in the soil remains safely out of the atmospheric cycle that leads to global warming. The grass is grazed by the herd owned by Andy Lyne – second cousin to Boaden – or made into high quality hay.

Meanwhile,a well-researched programme of tree planting, supported by the Forestry Commission and spearheaded by farm manager Sam Davies is establishing a walnut nuttery over seventeen acres of Kestle Barton pasture. The objectives range from commercial organic nut production – sweet chestnuts are being planted at the same time – to woodland habitat creation for nature conservation, soil amelioration, carbon sequestration and producing an exemplar for farmers seeking a future crop in an era of global warming. The results should be a beautiful, valuable, environmentally friendly and ecologically sound productive woodland.