Summer Newsletter
Home Farm Glamping, its ninth season well underway, in full bloom after the spring rainfall
‘Tis the season! Solstice, Glastonbury, Wimbledon, Ascot, the Ashes - and of course the hotly anticipated Aldenham Estate summer newsletter
Jessica Allen-Back collecting our Excellence in Business Diversification Award at the Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce Awards, June 2023
We hope you're well and enjoying the weather following a forgettable, waterlogged spring. We love these long days with their opportunities to get outside (or up in the air) with friends and family. All our businesses thrive at this time of year so, even though they’re busy enough in the winter, we wanted to focus on all the things happening while the sun shines.
We’ve had an interesting six months since our last update, and although sometimes when we’re in the thick of it we can feel that progress is slow, when we look back on the period since the last newsletter we can clearly see how much has been going on. We are concentrating on the positives amid the turbulence, and on our vision to ensure that the spaces we manage are offering the best value and support possible to our local community.
First and most importantly, though, we have two new additions to the Estate family, with Humphrey’s son Heath Gibbs arriving in February, and David welcoming his daughter Juniper earlier this week. Congratulations to both families from the whole team and good luck through these first few months (and years) of baby brain!
soaring to success at elstree Aerodrome
An experience day from the Air League’s Soaring to Success programme at Elstree Aerodrome in April. Credit: The Air League
The Air League hosted a fantastic reception a fortnight ago at the Palace of Westminster, which was attended by many inspiring aviation figures. One award went to Duncan Tripp, a Search and Rescue Winch Paramedic in Inverness. Duncan was commended for his repeated selfless acts when he rescued 24 people from Ben Nevis and 2 trapped climbers in Red Burn Gulley on 8th March 2022, in a moving tribute to the bravery of helicopter search and rescue crews across the country. Other awards went to different sectors of the aviation community including awards given to Boeing, Tui Airways, Cranfield University Aerospace Engineering Department, and NATS. Our director Jessica Allen-Back was honoured to receive an award for her work supporting the Soaring to Success programme which was launched at London Elstree Aerodrome in 2022, with the support of the William Gibbs Trust.
Soaring to Success bridges the gap between education and industry, working alongside schools to showcase the range of opportunities within the aviation sector to students. It has been very successful, and this year has grown 10 fold with the initial careers seminars reaching over 8,000 pupils. The programme is now supported by Boeing, British Airways, Department for Transport (DfT), United Kingdom and the Civil Aviation Authority, who will help expand the programme across the country.
Our involvement - especially our Elstree flight experience days - would not have been possible without the contribution of our resident businesses including Flight Training London, Pooleys Flight Equipment and London Elstree Aviation, whose expertise and professionalism are an excellent advert for the industry, as well as our own fantastic team of ground crew and in control tower operatives.
Huge thanks to the Air League for the recognition and all the work they do. It is a pleasure working with them and meeting so many young people from local schools and we look forward to growing the partnership well into the future.
Elstree Aerodrome viewed from the east
OTHER AERODROME NEWS
Flying activity - especially fixed-wing (aeroplanes) - was restricted in the first few months of the year due to the weather, but there is a great hum about the place now that we have a dry spell, with many students and pilots playing catch-up for the lost airborne hours. The very popular Aerodrome Cafe is thriving, if you are coming on a weekend make sure you book ahead to avoid disappointment as it is regularly full to the brim with happy customers enjoying good food and watching the flying.
Elstree businesses with Grant Shapps MP at Gen Welwyn Hatfield
In February some of the Aldenham Aviation team attended Generation Welwyn Hatfield, a fantastic careers fair, along with representatives from Flight Training London and ICE Helicopters, to showcase some of the opportunities at the aerodrome and in the wider aviation and engineering sector. It is great to see enthusiastic students engaging with the idea and understanding the many routes into a career in aviation, which are certainly not limited to training as an RAF pilot!
We recently completed the installation of 200 solar panels on the roof of our 2019 Hunsdon Hangar, which is expected to generate 80 kilowatts of clean energy, which now powers two hangars and two Sync EV charge points at the Southeast Hangar - next to Flight Training London’s offices - which are available for use by the public.
In April we welcomed Atlas Helicopters to Elstree. One of the leading providers of business helicopter flights and private helicopter charter in the UK, Atlas has been operating nationwide since 2001, and they are already putting Elstree to great use.
We continue to strive to improve and replace old infrastructure at the aerodrome. We have just completed the renovation of the Kinetic Hangar for London Elstree Aviation, our resident maintenance business; we have re-roofed and rigged lighting in the large Bellman Hangar, providing better protection for aircraft; and we will add four additional helicopter parking spots to better manage rotary traffic. Additionally, we have secured permitted development consent to build a small facility in the south-west area of the airfield for the handling of aircraft like Pilatus PC-12s, on the site that currently houses some of our retired aircraft, as well as a portacabin maintenance facility for Sloane Helicopters in the south-east corner.
The evergreen Mr Horwood. It seems impossible he’s at retirement age - a fantastic advert for the benefits of cycling to work every day!
Last but certainly not least, it is bittersweet to announce the retirement this summer of the (almost!) irreplaceable John Horwood, our lead ground crew who has been on the team for over fifteen years and at the airfield in some capacity for over forty years. John has been a driving force behind the improvements at Elstree in the last decade, always reliable and upbeat, and incredibly competent at the many varied tasks required to keep a busy airfield running smoothly. Thank you from all users of the aerodrome, and enjoy your well earned retirement!
AMPED FOR THE GLAMP!
Bell tent at Home Farm Glamping
Another year, another busy season at Home Farm Glamping. For the ninth time we erected our twelve canvas bell tents and yurts, sleeping over fifty people, and almost 20,000 people have now experienced the beauty of Home Farm’s meadows, woodland and lakes, and the comfort of the accommodation. Quite the transformation of a sleepy bean field, and it’s all thanks to Jessica whose madcap brainwave HFG was in 2014, and the brilliant team who have contributed so much to its development and continuous improvement. Matilda and Tabi are running the site this year under Alice’s management, with a great cleaning team and stalwarts Mick and Ben making things tick behind the scenes.
We are committed to following the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals and have looked at all our practices to see where we can make improvements. A major step this year has been managing to connect to mains electricity and getting rid of our diesel generator which hasn’t been an easy feat on quite a rural farm! We have also laid the groundwork for a large kitchen garden from which we hope to produce local food for our guests, we are improving our waste management processes and working with companies such as the Trussel Trust to avoid food waste from large groups, and our partnership with the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Wildlife Trust continues strongly to promote a positive engagement with nature.
We would love to see you and your partner, family, friends or colleagues, so please do get in touch if you are interested in a quick getaway or weekend stay this summer.
AT HOME FARM IS LIVE AGAIN
After two fantastic summer series of events, At Home Farm is back, kicking off earlier this month with an unforgettable day and night of wild dining hosted by Ben Quinn’s Woodfired Canteen under the long-awaited summer sun. After a delicious lunch cooked by Social Pantry, Josh Katz pulled a blinder for over a hundred guests.
Chef Josh Katz’s long-table feast hosted by Ben Quinn’s Woodfired Canteen. Credit: Camille Calyssa
Reviews for this year’s Giffords Circus show. Credit: Giffords Circus
Last week the acclaimed Giffords Circus rolled into town for a second summer, spending the week setting up following another wildly successful run at Chiswick House before opening on Thursday. This year’s show, “Les Enfants du Paradis”, proved to be another hit with returning and new audiences; with incredibly talented artists, wonderful stories and music, a beautiful big top and delicious food and drink, this truly is fun for all the family and not one to miss. We were very privileged to have them back at Home Farm for eight performances, and we hope to see them - and lots of you - next year and beyond.
Gifford's Circus were in town for another hit show
Our woodland stage will once again play host to great musical artists this summer. On 13th July and 14th July Communion Music present Laufey and The Shires respectively, with a few tickets available here. Then on 28th August Ronnie Scott’s Blues Explosion will light up the bank holiday with a unique evening of electrifying blues. Tickets here.
There is also comedy on the evening of 16th July in the form of the hilarious Lou Sanders and John Robins. What better way to round off a weekend than with some belly-aching laughs in the woods?
More incredible food will be served up in September, with four consecutive nights of top chefs cooking over wood fire, including two 2 nights of the incredible Noor Murad. It is hard to explain the delight of these evenings, but seeing / tasting is believing!
This is a tricky time for many artists and creatives, and we love being able to host so many of them and their fans on the estate. We were grateful to Hertsmere Borough Council for granting us planning permission in May, enabling us to use the site respectfully and sustainably. Thank you to the newly elected council - we hope to see many of you at Home Farm soon, as we are pretty proud of what we have created in collaboration with the real stars of the show.
MAKING A HOUSE a (ENERGY EFFICIENT) HOME
We have spent much of the last year renovating two residential properties on the estate. With regulations around energy performance and insulation increasingly demanding, it is a particular challenge for owners of houses built many years ago — four hundred-year-old estates, for example!
East End Farm House, near Roydon
East End Farm House is a Grade II listed, 17th century, 5-bed farmhouse which had very little work done to it over the last fifty or so years. Working closely with heritage advisors and listed building contractors, David has overseen a successful repair of the valley roof, internal structure and bay windows, retaining several features including restored original floorboards. Barely a stone was left unturned. The results are fantastic and we are now rather jealous of the family moving in next week!
2 Sidney Cottage on Aldenham Road is also nearing completion. When the two-bed semi-detached Victorian cottage became vacant two summers ago, we realised the potential for extension while making wholesale improvements to the structural integrity and insulation. A crack team, guided by Matt, has transformed the cottage, and will make a fabulous home for someone - perhaps a small family - and it should be available from early August, so please do get in touch if interested.
BEFORE: 2 Sidney (Jan 2020)
AFTER: 2 Sidney (spring 2023)
THE WIDER ESTATE
NEWS FLASH: WE WON! Please read more here >
We were incredibly proud to win the “Excellence in Business Diversification” award at Hertfordshire Chamber of Commerce’s Inspiring Hertfordshire ceremony at Warner Brothers’ Leavesden Studios last Thursday. It was a truly fantastic evening celebrating enterprise and innovation in the county, and we would like to thank the Chamber and congratulate all other winners and nominees.
As mentioned in our last letter, we are very focused on managing our land in a way that supports biodiversity and ecology on the estate, in a bid to counter the dreadful decline of the UK’s wildlife and habitats in recent years.
We have been delighted to see the return of the six “ghost” ponds at Home Farm, thanks to the grant from Natural England and the careful restoration works carried out by our friends at Maydencroft.
Aldenham Estate team morning fencing one of the reinstated “ghost” ponds
With new regulations coming in ensuring all planning proposals meet a minimum target of 10% Biodiversity Net Gain coming into force in November this year, house builders and developers will be required to ensure that all of their sites replace any existing habitat that is being lost, and improving that habitat by a minimum of 10%. This is a positive policy brought in by the government, and has been widely welcomed by ecologists and conservationists as a way to begin to grip with the terrible biodiversity crisis this country is facing.
Biodiversity is something we take very seriously. A report published in 2021 showed that the UK is one of the most depleted countries in the world for biodiversity, we have lost an estimated 50% of our species since 1970 putting us in the bottom 10% worldwide and the worst of the G7 nations. The Hertfordshire Wildlife Trusts State of Nature report shows that Hertfordshire is one of the most depleted counties in Great Britain. Biodiversity is vital to support our existence on the planet, the delicate balance of species which keeps habitats flourishing is also what supports our air quality, our water quality and allows us to grow food. We are now in a terrifying race to halt the decline in species loss, with farmers and land managers playing a crucial role in this fight. On the Estate, we have been focused on this since Jessica took over the management 9 years ago, and our focus on diversifying away from intensive arable farming towards renewable energy and environmental land management is all part of this wider process. We are in the process of working with ecologists to design a 200 acre managed habitat site that will allow local businesses to invest in habitat creation within the local area, and we will release details of this in the next few months.
The Hilfield Solar Farm, which would cover most of Hilfield and Slades Farm, would go a long way to boosting our BNG. Enso Energy’s large scheme would protect a large swathe of intensively farmed land from heavy machinery and chemicals for many decades, allowing significant soil regeneration and the reestablishment of habitats which could never thrive in monoculture crops that are harvested annually. We still await a decision from the Secretary of State for Levelling Up following last year’s public inquiry.
In the meantime, we are looking forward to this year’s wheat harvest, which our contracting partner AT Bone & Sons are due to begin later this month. Although not a positive contributor to BNG, the agricultural yields have been improving thanks to the Bones’ technology and this year’s crop is looking strong, so fingers crossed.
Gibbs family lunch in the barn at Home Farm Glamping
On 21st May we hosted a Gibbs Family reunion at Home Farm Glamping. Well over a hundred of our family attended, many of whom we had never met before, and we enjoyed an excellent meal, meeting relatives new and familiar, and a tour of Home Farm and Aldenham House, which was part of the estate until the mid 1900s. Many thanks to the team and Michael Gibbs for coordinating and putting on such a great day, and to Habs for the house tour.
HOME FARM HUB and commercial DEVELOPMENT
Construction on Home Farm Hub has been temporarily postponed as we focus on other projects, but we are taking the extra time to discuss the project with café/restaurant operators and landscape and design partners, and considering best model for the 120+ desk workspace. We are steadily implementing the wider landscaping plan, ensuring that the setting of this development will be making progress to achieve the potential of beauty and biodiversity.
We are steadily progressing with commercial development plans across the estate including the overhaul of our very busy industrial workspace at Hilfield Farm. These buildings currently house 12 local businesses employing around 60 people between them, but they are not as energy efficient or making the use of available space in the way we would like. Given the huge pressure on Hertsmere to find sites for commercial units without impacting the openness of the green belt, we have taken the decision to invest in our properties at Hilfield to make the best use of this available space. We hope to submit designs for this soon, but if local businesses would like to talk to us in the meantime please do get in touch.
The Estate Team by Tykes Water Lake, Home Farm
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Thanks again for your support and interest,
Humphrey, Jessica and the Aldenham Estate Teams