May/June 2021

PEOPLE
om Raynham’s grandfather (7th Marquess
Townshend) lived all his life in the
beautiful Raynham Hall, considered the
‘gateway to North Norfolk’. Home to the
Townshend family for nearly 500 years, the
estate comprises 800 acres of pasture and
parkland, 700 acres of woodland and 3,500
acres of land farmed in-hand with a variety
of cereal, root and break crops as well as
Aberdeen Angus beef cattle.
Tom, inline to inherit the estate, became
officially involved with the business in
2011 following the death of his grandfather, and
moved back to run the estate in 2016.
“Although I grew up on the farm, I have never
actually lived in Raynham Hall but it is very much part
of my history,” says Tom. “My father and stepmother
live in the Hall and run a number of events and tours
in and around renovation work they are carrying out.
The stars seemed to align back in 2016 and I came
back to take the helm, planning the future of the
estate.”
Tom studied at the Royal Agricultural College,
Cirencester, qualified as a chartered surveyor with
Bidwells then worked for Knight Frank in the Farms
and Estates team. “Travelling the country buying and
selling land provided a fabulous opportunity to see
what other farms were doing and what I might be
able to implement at home,” says Tom.
Suitably inspired, he turned his attention to
some large scale technical innovation in the form of
renewable energy. “We now have one of the country’s
largest solar farms – in fact, I think it was the largest
for about a week! – and an anaerobic digestor.
Built on the former Royal Air Force West Raynham
Airbase, the solar farm was completed in 2015 and is
currently leased to Bluefield Partners. It serves over
12,000 homes with electricity as well as providing
the neighbouring communities with funds for local
projects.
“There was still a lot of momentum in the
renewables industry at that time and my contacts
at Knight Frank helped us put together a tender that
went out to the solar developers.
“On the biogas side, our anaerobic digester uses
farm waste to produce biomethane which is injected
into the mains gas supply. It is a very satisfying
system as we produce sugar beet for British Sugar
on the farm and then buy back sugar beet pulp that
we feed into the digester along with maize, rye and
poultry muck. The bugs break down the feedstock
to produce biomethane which goes back to the
grid. The by-product of the whole process is then
put back onto the land as an organic fertiliser. This
displaces a lot of artificial fertiliser, acts as a carbon
capture and improves the soil structure.”
WEDDINGS AND EVENTS
Tom admits to a steep learning curve when he
launched the hospitality side of the estate’s
business. “It was about 24 months after getting
involved that we started putting our event
aspirations into place. It took around 18 months of
learning, deciding on the type of events we wanted
to hold or attract, and how best to do things”.
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