Hadleigh and the environment
Hadleigh Farm is enrolled in an Entry and Higher Level
Stewardship Scheme agreement including prudent management of the
ruins of Hadleigh Castle and the species-rich acidic grassland and
the creation of an uninterrupted wildlife and habitat corridor from
Hadleigh Park in the west to Belton Hills in the east; arable
reversion of some arable land in order to achieve the creation of
the wildlife and habitat corridor; and greater use of explanatory
signage to educate and inform members of the public making use of
the various public rights of way across the farm.
A number of public footpaths weave through both the
arable and grassland areas.
Hadleigh Farm therefore engages with partners including Natural
England, the Environment Agency, English Heritage and Essex County
Council in order to preserve and enhance the environmental assets
of the farm. Hadleigh Farm grows a number of arable crops
including feed and milling wheat, barley, oats, beans, peas and
oilseed rape
The Rare Breeds Centre opened in 2004 with the aims
of promoting conservation of rare breed animals, preserving rare
blood lines and providing an opportunity for education regarding
food and farming.
We are a member of the National
Farm Attractions Network, Rare Breeds Survival Trust (RBST) and CEVAS
(Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme) registered.
Animals featured include Bagot goats, Golden Guernsey goats,
Leicester Longwool sheep, Greyface Dartmoor sheep, Middle White
pigs, Exmoor pony, Marsh Daisy chickens, Derbyshire Red Cap
chickens and Sebastapol geese.
The Hub Café aims for sustainability and minimizing
negative impact on the world around us. The majority of our
ingredients are sourced locally, and all of our food packaging is
fully compostable. We aim to remove single use plastic from our
product range by the end of 2021.
Tree Tots
Wonderwalks is an outside group run on the Estate for tots and
their carers to explore and learn together.
Hadleigh Training Centre are working on an
Ecobricks project . Ecobricks are reasuable plastic building
blocks made of clean and dry single use plastics. This
project will develop fine motor skills, encourage and develop
spcail and commiunications skills and opens up discussions about
sustainability.
We are committed to ensuring the long term sustainability of the Estate by
enhancing and exploring income generating activities in order to
cover our expenditure. We rationalise expenditure across the
site so that precious resources are managed effectively. Our
environmental impact will be lessened by reducing single use plastics and increasing
use of sustainable products. We are increasing our recycling
efforts, reducing our use of paper by moving our administrative
processes to paperless, expanding our use of LED/low energy light
bulbs and expanding our composting facilities.