The Farm

The arable land is let to Mike Gooderham, a local farmer. The cropping includes winter wheat, winter barley, oilseed rape, sugar beet and beans. The arable farmland is complex with varying soil types and irregular shaped fields interspersed with large blocks of woodland and grassland. All crops from the 1,300 hundred acres of arable land are stored and processed at the farm on the Estate. The Gooderham family work in conjunction with the Thornham Estate to manage the environmental schemes.

The Gooderham family also manage and run a shoot on the Estate. Large areas of seed-bearing plants are sown to provide food for game birds in the winter months. Other species of birds take advantage of this source of food, in particular finches, sparrows and yellowhammers.

The grassland areas are let to various tenants under grazing agreements. These allow the graziers to occupy the land between April and October. All grassland on the Estate is farmed using minimal amounts of fertiliser and most areas do not receive chemicals for weed control. The grazing animals are predominantly cattle, sheep and horses.