The Trusty Servant May 2017 No.123 | Page 7

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