ESTATE

LOST VALLEY & THE WHOLE TREE POLICY

In the eighteenth century these semi-natural ancient woodlands evolved into a landscape designed for pleasure; the original Georgian Ride, lined by ancient oaks, still runs alongside a series of lakes, leats and a mill stream. Local archaeologists have traced man’s woodland activities in this area back to Mediaeval times, and today we continue these traditions by processing timber for charcoal, coppicing for pea sticks and utilising larger trunks and branches for building and furniture making on site.

Our Wood Project staff are able to select Heligan timber for their own use whenever a tree has to be felled and regularly demonstrate planking and seasoning, wood-turning and furniture-making in their workshops. The unique and individually finished products made from Heligan Wood are then sold from our Heligan Shop.

Neglect of the woodlands through most of the last century resulted in the encroachment of weed sycamore and cumulative storm damage. New tree planting, particularly to re-instate the huge original shelterbelts, is a priority; but all woodland activities are increasingly assessed for their impact on resident wildlife.

FOOD & FARMING

Our lease extends into areas of the original Heligan Home Farm. Hedges have been traditionally re-laid and a network of new paths installed to encourage visitors into the furthest reaches of our land base, in order to fully appreciate the dramatic nature of the Heligan landscape.

Meanwhile our Poultry Orchard lies only just beyond the Northern Gardens and we rotate around the more accessible pastures the grazing by our own flock of Wiltshire Horn sheep. Our intention, as in the productive gardens, is to enable Heligan visitors to get up close to the land, and to encourage interest in how we manage it and where our food comes from. Our grassland management and low intensity grazing regimes are, however, primarily determined by the interests of Heligan wildlife.

We have no access to the original Home Farm buildings for winter storage, nor sufficient expertise or resources ourselves to demonstrate farming practices in a comprehensive and accountable way, so we have been working with our immediate neighbours, the Lobb brothers at Kestle Farm, to offer Heligan visitors – and the local community – a greater understanding of the critical role of farming in the management of an attractive and diverse landscape.

The multi-award-winning Lobbs Farm Shop has been built in our main car park, incorporating a major exhibition, where farm animal life cycles, land rotation, traceability of food and issues of seasonality and distribution are investigated, along with our responsibility to protect the environment and our wildlife heritage.

The Lobbs graze some of their South Devon cattle and Dorset Poll sheep on our land and Heligan visitors have the opportunity to purchase fresh, high quality, home-reared lamb and beef and consider the many benefits of continuing to buy local, responsibly produced food when they return home.

Visit Lobb's Farm Shop
www.lobbsfarmshop.com

LOST VALLEY