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| Luddesdown from Wrenches Shaw, late evening - enjoy while you can? |
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| Towards Cobham from Wrenches Shaw - late evening: Enjoy while you can? |
A while back, I found out that much of the farmland around Luddesdown had been put up for sale. This area is one of the few remaining unspoiled areas of
Naturally enough, this has caused some unease in the local
community. Very little of North Kent has
managed to avoid the rapacity of greedy developers, and the merest thought of
Luddesdowne vanishing under yet more high-density, low-cost/quality housing for
London refugees is too horrible to contemplate.
So today, I set out to the Golden Lion
in Luddesdown, to attend a public
meeting with the new owners of Court
Farm and Brookers Farm. These arable
farms are archetypal English farmland and have remained pretty much
unchanged in character for the last hundred years, and contribute so much to the beauty of
the area.
To be honest, I had been half-expecting to have to listen to some stuffed
suits explaining how the new overseas owners had added Luddesdown to their land
investment portofolio and had no present plans to significantly change blah
blah blah - other than putting up lots of barbed wire and making public access difficult a la Church Hill in Cuxton (as foreign owners of English land so often do...).
Instead, the “new owners”, Holly and Neil, turned out to be
a very pleasant and very English young married couple. Holly (rather nervously) took the microphone to
explain her background to the sixty or so people packing the Golden Lion bar, before
outlining their ambitions to turn the area into an eco-friendly vineyard.
Holly is the eldest daughter of the entrepreneur Mark Dixon, the colourful Monaco-based English billionaire businessman best known as the founder of serviced office business Regus.
It would be a tragedy if that view were to be blotted out by the dull, dreary monoculure of vines.
But at the end of the day, change happens. We can all be thankful that as changes go, a new vineyard springing up on the landscape is not a disaster, just something different...
Holly is the eldest daughter of the entrepreneur Mark Dixon, the colourful Monaco-based English billionaire businessman best known as the founder of serviced office business Regus.
Mr Dixon himself is no stranger to the vineyard business, already
owning the Chateau de Berne vineyard and
spa complex in Provence and the Kingscote estate in Sussex ,
and has undoubtedly provided the financial backing for his daughter and
son-in-law to develop Court and Brookers Farm, although not necessarily along the same lines.
In terms of local employment opportunities, they will certainly be created. Whether anyone local has what's needed for starting and running a vineyard is debatable. In conversation with their business manager (a forthright lady whose name I forgot to ask), it seems that the initial start-up crew (40-odd strong) will be itinerant in nature, and will be hired in and housed in a temporary camp site for the duration of the initial vine planting.
In terms of local employment opportunities, they will certainly be created. Whether anyone local has what's needed for starting and running a vineyard is debatable. In conversation with their business manager (a forthright lady whose name I forgot to ask), it seems that the initial start-up crew (40-odd strong) will be itinerant in nature, and will be hired in and housed in a temporary camp site for the duration of the initial vine planting.
Quite what the effect of all this upon Luddesdown and its surrounding countryside remains to be seen. A vineyard and bottling plant (and, I suspect, the inevitable spa/hotel/conference centre) will undoubtedly increase the amount of traffic down the narrow country lanes around Luddesdown.
And replacing the annual cereal crops with permanent vines will inevitably mean an end to the glorious and colourful ever-changing seasonal views across the
valley. The green fields will no longer undulate
gently in the valley breezes as they turn to gold in the summer. The spectacular wildflower vistas of blues,
reds, yellows and whites that once flourished amongst the oats and
barley will be lost in the monoculture of the vineyard. Better than a sea of houses, though...
Sadly, the view itself from Wrenches Shaw may well be lost should the vines be strung up the hill from the east of Cutter Ridge Road. Two metre-high vine canes would effectively fence off the view from Bassett’s Seat with a wall of vines.
Holly and Neil seem like very likeable and I
really wish them all the best. They genuinely seem as if they want to preserve the character of the area as far as they can. I just hope that they can find the time to walk the paths around
their land, and in particular, to take in the view of their land from Ray and Eiley Bassett’s
memorial bench up on Wrenches Shaw, before it all gets blanketed under vine poles.
And to reflect upon what they hold in their hands.
And to reflect upon what they hold in their hands.
It would be a tragedy if that view were to be blotted out by the dull, dreary monoculure of vines.
But at the end of the day, change happens. We can all be thankful that as changes go, a new vineyard springing up on the landscape is not a disaster, just something different...
