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Historic Yorkshire estate wins top agricultural award

Charlie Forbes Adam, who runs the family-owned historic 8,000-acre Escrick Park, near York, has been presented with one of the Royal Agricultural Society of England (RASE)’s most prestigious awards.

Fittingly the presentation, a focal part of RASE’s annual President’s Day, took place at Skipwith Hall, the family home of Mr Forbes Adam.

Senior members of RASE came from all over the country to attend President’s Day, which is one of the most important dates in the Society’s calendar.

Mr Forbes Adam received RASE’s Bledisloe Gold Medal for Landowners in recognition of a range of successful diversification projects and his commitment to improving the rural environment at Escrick Park.

The award is presented annually to one landowner who has demonstrated outstanding achievement in the successful land management and development of an agricultural estate in England.

Escrick Park’s substantial diversification includes offices, commercial lets, holiday lodges, wedding facilities, an equestrian cross-country course and a National Nature Reserve.

Notably, the estate has boosted the local economy through a sensitive £1.4m renovation of redundant farm buildings to create 24 eco-friendly offices and 14 light industry units and Hollicars – the estate’s 180 pitch, five-star holiday park which opened in 2005 – has won the David Bellamy Gold Award for conservation.

Mr Forbes Adam, speaking at the awards ceremony, which was held in the picturesque Little Theatre at Skipwith Hall, said: “The Estate has been in the Forbes Adam family since 1668 and has been constantly evolving. We are simply its guardians, whose duty is to pass it on in fine shape to future generations.

“This award, which is a huge honour and very humbling, reassures us that we are doing something right.

“In these challenging economic times, we cannot reply simply on income from farming – we have to diversify.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Mark Lane .