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Wasdale Head Hall Farm Wasdale High Tilberthwaite Farm Wasdale Head Hall Farm Wasdale Wasdale Head Hall Farm Thank you for your interest… In what we think is a great opportunity for the right people to work at Wasdale Head Hall Farm in the coming years with us in the National Trust. We’ve been working really hard to look at how farming in balance with nature can happen here and how we will work closely with our new tenants to make a successful partnership for everyone. This farm is in an amazing part of the Lake District that is loved by millions – the area is so special that, last year, the Lake District became a World Heritage Site as a Cultural Landscape – in no small part due to the way in which people have interacted with and been influenced by the landscape over hundreds of years. Farming has been one of the key elements of this and we are working to help it continue. It’s a time of real change and uncertainty at the moment as Brexit looms and the future is unclear – but we believe that it is also a time of opportunity for you and for us. We are really clear that we want a successful farming enterprise here that also helps us meet our national strategy, our ambition for the land – a shared purpose for the countryside. We know that we can achieve this by working together – through the period of change and uncertainty and beyond into what we hope will be a strong long term relationship. Thank you again for your interest in Wasdale Head Hall Farm. Please read on to find out more information about the farm. Marian Silvester Robin Witchell General Manager Estate Manager Our ask Firstly, have a read of this document, and if you like what you read, visit the farm on the viewing day and talk with us to understand what we are after. If it feels like this could be for you, think about what the future might look like if you were the tenant of Wasdale Head Hall Farm. If you then consider you are the right person for this opportunity, we will need management proposals and tenders for the tenancy of Wasdale Head Hall Farm, a traditional Lake District Farm with a landlord’s flock of Herdwick sheep, situated in the dramatic landscape of Wasdale, in the Western Lake District. We also want to understand how you will work with us. Our Offer We are offering to let Wasdale Head Hall Farm on a Farm Business Tenancy with standard repairing obligations for an initial fixed term of 15 years commencing on 11th October 2019. The agreement will include a mutual break clause operational in the Autumn of years 5 and 10 (served by either party specific dates to be agreed between the parties) if it becomes apparent that either party’s desired outcomes are not going to be achieved. A standard Farm Business Tenancy agreement will be available to read at the viewing day. 1 Wasdale Head Hall Farm We are looking for someone with… • Willingness to work in true partnership and collaboration with us, in accordance with our conservation aims and objectives. • Full understanding, experience and appreciation of the requirements, responsibilities, administration and challenges of running a fell farming business within the current climate. • Strong shepherding knowledge and experience. • Experience of applying for, managing and delivering agri-environment schemes, and a willingness to actively engage with nature friendly farming and environmentally responsible farming systems such as organic / LEAF marque / Pasture Fed Livestock etc. • Ability and motivation to maintain the landscape features, such as dry stone walls, fences and hedgerows. • Ideas, innovation and enthusiasm to make a success of the holding. • Welcome and work with the high levels of public access. • Evidence of a sound financial base. • Full understanding of legal obligations, Cross Compliance and Codes of Good Agricultural Practice. • Willingness to work with neighbours and external organisations. • Understanding, and preferably experience, of adding value to a farm business through diversification. Location Wasdale Head Hall Farmhouse is located approximately 1 mile south west of the small hamlet of Wasdale Head; 9 miles to Gosforth; 21 miles and 29 miles to auction markets in Broughton in Furness and Cockermouth respectively. © Crown copyright and database rights 2018 Ordnance Survey 100023974 2 Wasdale Head Hall Farm Background information Wasdale Head Hall Farm was acquired by the National Trust in 1959 by the state under the National Land Fund procedures (from the Leconfield Estate in lieu of death duties) for ‘permanent preservation’. As its name suggests, the farm sits at the head of Wastwater, a Site of Special Scientific Interest and Special Area of Conservation, and the health of the lake will be at the forefront of any land management decisions. The farm’s location at the head of Wastwater is also important from the landscape point of view, being at the heart of ‘Britain’s favourite view’ and within the English Lake District World Heritage Site. Maintaining Wasdale Head Hall as a working farm is an important objective for the National Trust. The Lake District is inscribed as a ‘continuing cultural landscape’ World Heritage Site. To maintain its global status in this regard, the region must retain its authenticity as a landscape of exceptional beauty which continues to be shaped by an indigenous culture based upon traditional farming. The continuation of traditional farming in the Lake District is therefore a critical pillar in retaining World Heritage status and avoiding the region becoming fossilized as a ‘museum’ of past land-use history. Wasdale is a very popular and well visited Valley, with the main attractions being Scafell Pike and Wastwater and there are footpaths and trails used by many visitors. The dramatic scenery in the valley is shaped by centuries of agro-pastoral activity and is a key valley for Herdwick flocks. Wasdale Head Hall Farm extends to circa 810 hectares with c.44 hectares of ‘in-bye’ pasture and meadow, c.90 hectares of intake rough grazing and the remainder being fell land. The land is split into two blocks on either side of Wastwater. There is also mowable land available at the Western end of Wastwater and grazing/mowable land near Santon Bridge under separate agreement. The farmhouse is set over two floors and has four bedrooms with an adjoining holiday cottage over two floors with two bedrooms. The farm is served by a bank barn with stores and chiller/cutting room below, a modern general-purpose building with slatted concrete floor, and a modern sheep building. The National Trust We are an independent conservation charity which cares for special places across England, Wales and Northern Ireland. We are supported by over 5 million members and 60,000 volunteers and are one of Europe’s leading conservation bodies and one of the largest landowners in the UK. We look after 250,000 hectares of land for the benefit of the nation to achieve an array of objectives ranging from the protection of historic landscapes and features to creating and managing wildlife habitats, with sustainable farming an important mechanism. Conservation of wildlife and landscape has always been part of the Trust’s charitable purpose. In the Lake District we play a really important role in helping look after this special place and the communities within it and in welcoming the many visitors who come from all round the world to experience it. As part of this, we look after around 44,500 hectares (approx. 1/5 of the National Park) including 18,000ha of Common fell land, England’s highest mountain (Scafell Pike) and deepest lake (Wastwater) and 24 lakes and tarns. Much of this land is split between the 90 farms (54 fell farms) that we have which host some 21,000 sheep, largely Herdwick, as fell going landlord’s flocks; and we also have 3 Wasdale Head Hall Farm nearly 300 residential houses and cottages occupied full time. We run a number of major indoor visitor attractions, including Hill Top, Wray Castle, and Sizergh Castle, as well as several significant outdoor sites such as Tarn Hows and Aira Force and a number of smaller destinations. We also have a varied commercial portfolio including 4 Trust run campsites, holiday cottages and Sticklebarn pub in Great Langdale; as well as other businesses run by tenants. Our Ambition for land The National Trust’s strategy document ‘Playing Our Part’ sets out our long term ambitions for the land in our care in the 21st century. ‘Our ambition is to meet the needs of an environment under pressure, and the challenges and expectations of a fast-moving world. We want to continue to maintain the highest standards of care for everything we look after, while working in a way that feels relevant and necessary to people and their day-to-day lives’. Our strategy aims to position the National Trust to play an active and leading role in reversing the national decline in nature in order to secure not only our cultural, but also our natural heritage, ‘for ever, for everyone’. The first theme of the Trust’s strategy is ‘Looking after the Nation’s Special Places’ which we will deliver by ‘always trying to conserve, protect and provide access to coast, countryside and historic homes and gardens to the highest standard’. The inscription of the Lake District as a new World Heritage Site in 2017 has confirmed the region’s status as a ‘cultural landscape’ of global significance, highlighting it as not only one of the ‘Nation’s Special Places’, but of importance for present and future generations of all humanity.
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