More Than a Farm: The Wildlife and Natural World of Morghew Park Estate

It would be easy to describe Morghew Park Estate simply in terms of what it produces: the potatoes, the flour, the game, the vodka. But that would be to miss something important about the place. Across its 2,000 acres, Morghew encompasses a range of habitats - traditional Wealden upland, marshland, ancient and mature woodland, reservoirs, lakes and several miles of river - that support a breadth and quality of wildlife rarely found on a single working farm. The two things are not in tension here. They are part of the same long-term relationship with the land.

The estate's varied habitats attract some striking residents. Marsh harriers - large, heavy-built birds of prey, an amber-listed species recovering slowly after historical declines - hunt over the reedbeds and farmland. Reed buntings nest in the wet vegetation. Yellow wagtails, a red-listed species of conservation concern, breed on the arable farmland and wet pastures in summer before heading to Africa for the winter. In the woodland, jays carry acorns through the trees in autumn with their characteristic screaming call. Early purple orchids - once common across Kent, now significantly reduced by development and changing farming practices - still flower on the estate's grassland in spring.

The woodland itself merits separate consideration. Two hundred acres of predominantly broadleaved trees, managed in compartments with deep gullies, mown grass rides and well-maintained tracks running through them. Some sections are actively managed; others are left relatively wild. It is the combination that matters - for the woodland to function as habitat, you need both. The estate's waterways add another dimension: two reservoirs, several lakes, and the Newmill Channel and Reading Ditch, minor Kentish watercourses that feed into the River Rother and support populations of carp, pike, tench, bream and perch, as well as the riparian habitat alongside them.

Morghew Park has been farmed for over a thousand years. The fact that it still supports this range and quality of wildlife is not incidental. It is, in a quiet way, the point.

Discover more about Morghew Park Estate here: https://morghew.com/