Our Estate is located on a beautiful, historic estate near Sevenoaks in West Kent, England. We have some 500 acres of a mixture of arable, and grazing land as well as woods and shaws. It is crossed by footpaths and there are bridleways. There are also two Airbnb properties, which have proven to be highly popular with a growing number of guests returning for the second, third or even more times. It is a peaceful place to be and we pinch ourselves every day that we were lucky enough in June 1997 to find and be able buy this place.

Over the period 1997 to early 2019, we were dedicated to producing the highest quality British milk ensuring at the same time the best possible safety and welfare of our staff, livestock and the environment.  Sadly, while we operated to the highest level of integrity and transparency, worked within every regulation and rule thrown at us and had an outstanding closed herd of holstein friesans, we could not make the economics work.  Over 20 years we invested a considerable sum of money on building new infrastructure and covering operating losses.  In 2018, we were milking some 240 cows three times a day.  We won Gold Awards.  In the event, none of this was enough.  The level of the milk price did not justify continued investment.  So, in  2019 we sold our herd.  We left the industry with pride even if our wallet had been dented, but we also left with sorrow; sorrow that the supermarkets and the consumers are, when all is said and done, unwilling to support high quality, safe dairy farming.

Today, we have split the business into five units:

1). we let our grazing land of 59 acres out to other farmers, mostly sheep but in the dryer months also some cattle;

2). we have our arable operations of 302 acres, but because we now do not need the crops for our livestock we sell them to market or other farmers;;

3). we continue to improve the wildlife habitats on our land, in the woods and shaws (105 acres), the rough areas and around the reservoirs and ponds with great results we are pleased to say;

4). we have two houses available for rent through Airbnb:  Puncheur Place and the Oast House.  Roni is a Super Host and has over a 4.9 star rating. Welcoming returning guests has become common;  

5). we repurposed our large livestock barns for film prop storage and radically improved security. We started this new activity in January 2021 and to May 2024 have stored 11 films, some large, some small.. This has proven to be a profitable business and Henden now pays corporate taxes after so many years of loss making. Importantly, this profitable activity will sustain the continued operations of the estate. Importantly, too, the nature of this particular type of storage is such that traffic into and out of the estate is sporadic and over the year is low in average – perhaps some 40% of the traffic that we had when the dairy farm was in operation.

We have been on an amazing journey since we bought Henden 27 years ago. We have invested a lot of time, effort and money in it and are proud of our achievements. We have our small staff to thank, too, for all of the work they put into the estate to manage the various businesses.  If you visit it through Airbnb or are simply passing through on the footpaths or bridelways we hope you will enjoy it, too.

Thank you for stopping by this website.  We hope you will find it informative and enjoyable. If you have any comments or questions please do not hesitate to write to info@hendenmanor.com.  

Thank you,

Roni & Martin Lovegrove