About Us

The Aldenham Estate is located outside Elstree in Hertfordshire. From the early 1600s until its sale in the inter-war years, Aldenham House was the central residence of the Gibbs family and ancestors. Although just twelve miles from Marble Arch as the crow flies, Elstree and Aldenham were almost entirely rural until the early 1900s, but the subsequent expansion of Greater London has changed the area indelibly. Now broken up by the busy local road network, the Aldenham Estate is split into four definitive parcels - Elstree Aerodrome, Home Farm, Hilfield Farm and Slades Farm, as well as several smaller farms and residential properties.

Many of the Gibbs family worked as merchants and bankers in London and abroad, and several were involved in local and national politics. Henry Hucks Gibbs, who inherited the Estate in 1869, was a senior partner of Antony Gibbs & Sons, Governor of the Bank of England from 1875-77, and later MP for the City of London and High Sheriff of Hertfordshire. Henry’s son Vicary, also a partner of the family firm, was MP for St. Albans from 1892-1904. Both father and son shared a passion for landscaping and horticulture and by the early 1900s Aldenham House was nationally renowned for its water gardens, range of plants and arboretum, rivalling Kew and once described as the period’s “virtuoso garden.”  Vicary was especially devoted to the project, cultivating a garden that became notable for its flowering trees and shrubs, winning awards for the flowers and vegetables grown by his head gardener Edwin Beckett.

When Vicary died without children in 1932, Aldenham House was sold, and the Sotheby’s auction of the vast inventory of rare plants and trees lasted for three weeks. Following its sale the house was used first as a country club, then by the BBC during the war, before becoming Haberdashers’ Aske’s (now Haberdashers’), a prestigious public school founded in 1690. The rest of the farm was passed to Vicary’s brother, Herbert. Without a family member based at Aldenham for the best part of five decades, business was run from a relative distance with the help of rural agents. This period saw the creation of Elstree Aerodrome, first as a leisure field and then as part of the war effort for the assembly and maintenance of Vickers Wellington bombers.

While the rest of the Estate was traditionally farmed throughout the twentieth century, the establishment of Elstree Aerodrome and its subsequent development into one of the most popular general aviation hubs in the country is an early example of a diversification that is now increasingly visible.

Siblings Jessica and Humphrey Gibbs now run an estate that continues to adapt, and its activities now include farming, aviation, commercial and residential property, glamping, corporate hospitality, weddings and live events. The Estate team has grown considerably over the last ten years with a much more proactive approach to biodiversity and carbon reduction, as well as the sensitive redevelopment and maintenance of existing properties.

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