Farming charity celebrates 25 years

The Countryside Restoration Trust is celebrating its 25th anniversary on 29 July with a festival of farming, food and wildlife at its Cambridgeshire site, Lark Rise Farm.

Countryside raconteur Robin Page and painter and conservationist Gordon Beningfield founded the charity in July 1993 with the help of friends, including Laurens van de Post, Elspeth Huxley and Jill Barklem.

Admitting they started “not knowing anything about running a charity”, the CRT now has more than 2,000 acres of farmland producing food and wildlife on 15 farms across the country, from Norfolk to Huddersfield. A redevelopment at one of the farms in Surrey is becoming a hub for sustainable rural businesses and at the four education centres children are taught about sustainable country life and where their food comes from.

“We have a huge range of habitats under our protection: water meadows, grasslands, hedgerows, ancient woodlands and we have recreated traditional hay meadows. We have skylarks, barn owls, bats, butterflies and bees and we have even managed to get the return of water voles to Lark Rise Farm. The dream of a few people with vision has become a reality,” said Page.

The latest legacy was a farmhouse, farm buildings and 50 acres of land in Surrey and another 150 acres of Dorset farmland gifted to the charity in March by the late John Collett. The charity is now fundraising to restore the farm buildings and turn them into an exhibition centre.

For a free ticket, write to: CRT, Haslingfield Road, Barton, Cambridgeshire CB23 7AG. Or visit: countryrestorationtrust.com