Rooted in Kent: The 600-Year Story of Quex Park

Few places in Kent carry quite as much history as Quex Park. Tucked away in Birchington on the Isle of Thanet, the estate has records stretching back to the 15th century, when the land belonged to the Church, supplying Canterbury Cathedral and St Augustine's Abbey with food and vellum for manuscripts. Long before the word "provenance" became fashionable, Quex was quietly feeding and sustaining the people of Kent.

The estate takes its name from the Quekes family, prominent players in the medieval wool trade whose name gradually evolved into Quex over time. When John Quex died in 1449, the estate passed through marriage to the Crispe family, and from there through centuries of inheritance and reinvention. Among its more colourful owners was Henry Fox, First Lord Holland and Paymaster General, who held the estate in the 1760s. His son, the MP Charles Fox, eventually sold it to John Powell in 1777 to settle his debts, and it was Powell's heir who commissioned the mansion house that still stands today: a handsome new building designed by London architect Thomas Hardwick, built in place of the old Tudor house that had fallen into disrepair.

Through every chapter of ownership, the land itself remained constant. Farmed across the centuries, shaped by each generation's hands, Quex Park arrived in the modern era as something rare: a working estate with deep roots, serious ambition, and an unbroken connection to the soil of East Kent. Today, that story continues with Quex Farms, and a new chapter focused on regenerative growing and pesticide-free seasonal vegetables. Some things, it turns out, really do come full circle.

Discover Quex Farms and their upcoming seasonal veg box scheme at: https://www.quexveg.co.uk/