N o .123
T he T rusty S ervant
Our one major change in policy in
this period has been the sale of the entire
Sydling Estate with vacant possession
(caused by the deaths or retirement
of all the farm tenants) in the 1980s
and reinvestment of the proceeds in
2,800 acres of largely Grade 1 land in
Cambridgeshire. Our Cambridgeshire
Estate (all farmed by OW Lord De
Ramsey) has shown a total return (capital
growth and income) of 11% per annum.
Grain storage at Ropley
Etonian who scored 90 for Eton against
Winchester. He immediately reinstated
the role of Estates Bursar and appointed
David Vellacott. They then had to set
about finding where the Estates all were
- there were no title deeds, few leases and
fewer plans - only a Rent Book. A copy of
the first full Estates Terrier was eventually
produced by 1970 and is now maintained
on a daily basis. More land sales still
took place (particularly woodlands) but
some farms (including Barton Farm and
Heberden’s Farm) and some commercial
property were bought. The present
incumbent took over in 1981 when
the Estates were valued at £7.34m and
produced an annual surplus of £125,000.
They are now a little smaller but with a
total value of £220.54m and a net income
of £1.43m.
The last challenge to the College’s
ownership of land came in 1994 in the
form of an Investment Review into
asset allocation, initiated by some OW
benefactors who felt that the College
should own less land or indeed none at
all. The Review was in depth and lasted
over a year. The argument for retaining
all the land, and indeed modestly
increasing the size of the Estates, was
swayed by the Taylor paper: a Fellow,
Ronnie Taylor, produced a paper that
proved that not only had the College
been selling off its best-performing asset
for decades, but that College land had
outperformed any other investment over
almost any period of time since it was first
valued in 1950.
This outperformance stemmed
from Lord Saye & Sele’s report of 1961
recommending:
(i) the realisation of capital by the
sale of building land, woodlands,
redundant houses and small farms;
(ii) its reinvestment in improving fixed
equipment and buying more farms in
Hampshire;
(iii) rental increases;
(iv) amalgamation of holdings.
This would be standard practice for
today’s surveyor but until 1961 vacant
possession resulted in an immediate sale
regardless of the state of the market.
The College was so keen to dispose of
one farm, in what is now the Hampshire
stockbroker belt, that they granted
the buyer a mortgage so that he could
afford it! Since 1981, we have raised
many millions from the sale of building
land, redundant cottages and small
‘horseyculture’ paddocks. All our fixed
equipment is modern and housing is in
excellent order. Virtually all traditional
agricultural buildings not fit for purpose
have been converted to residential, office
or light industrial use. We have built
two new farmhouses, three cottages, two
300-cow dairies and nearly 10,000 tonnes
of on-floor grain storage. We have bought
more land in Hampshire - principally
1,300 acres at Lasham, near Alton, and
350 acres around Winchester. The rent
roll has risen more than tenfold with the
number of tenants falling from 29 to 16
and a consequent doubling of average
holding size.
7
The Investment Review is revisited
every decade and our current policy
is not to buy medium-to-large blocks
of vacant land but to buy land with
marriage value to existing holdings, land
in special situations (largely let) and
strategic land. Since the beginning of the
last recession we have bought some 400
acres of the latter. We have helped to
fund these acquisitions by promoting land
for housing: we have been involved in
consent for some 2,250 houses, and have
entered Joint Promotion Agreements and
Options for another 1,100 or so, which
should come good in the next five to ten
years.
The Estates now are in as good a
shape as they have ever been with good-
sized farms and excellent tenants properly
provided with first-class buildings.
We have not lost our sense of history,
however, as we are still lord of ten manors
in which we have an interest.
Hopefully, I will never be faced with
the 1461 rebellion of College tenants at
Harmondsworth against their ‘customary
works, burthens and services’ to their
landlord!
Dairy at Alt on