The
Cholderton Estate today is the result of a far-sighted Victorian
acquisition of several farms and parcels of land on the Hampshire-Wiltshire
border At its greatest extent, the estate stretched to some 5,000
acres (2,000ha), but today it is about 2,500 acres (1,000ha).
The
estate has remained in the family of its creator, Victorian entrepreneur
and polymath Henry ‘Inky’ Stephens, whose family name
will always be linked with the famous ‘blue black’ ink.
Today’s owner, Henry Edmunds, took over the estate in 1975
on the death of his father.
As
well as being an experienced estate manager, Mr Edmunds is a skilled
and passionate naturalist, and it is this passion for natural history
that has led him to manage the estate in sympathy with the natural
world.
To
understand the estate, it is important to look at it in its natural
and historical contexts. |
