Forever England

These quintessentially English estates are the perfect places to revel in the beauty of this green and pleasant land

- Penny Churchill

CLIVE HOPKINS of Knight Frank’s farms and estates department is overseeing the simultaneous launch onto the market of two of the most picturesque country estates in the Chilterns: the 477-acre Burrow Farm estate, set in the Hambleden Valley, Buckinghamshire, and the 285-acre Beech Farm estate, near Woodcote in south Oxfordshire.

The sales follow the recent deaths of the both the estates’ former owners—David Palmer of Burrow Farm and Maj Sir David Black of Beech Farm—both of whom were champions of the countryside with a keen interest in local affairs, serving as High Sheriffs of their respective counties in 1993. Both were aged 92 when they died, Palmer in 2019, and Sir David in May of this year.

Born the son of an army officer in 1926, Palmer served with the Life Guards in Palestine, Egypt and Germany before leaving the army for a successful career as a broker, partner and eventual chairman of international insurers Willis Faber, which sprang to fame for having insured RMS Titanic. In 1978, Palmer and his wife, Millie, bought Burrow Farm, which has a fine, Grade II-listed manor house built over three periods, the earliest being the 16th-century Tudor wing to the west, which is connected to a 17th-century brick-and-flint extension and a later post-war wing.

Next to Burrow Farm House stands the impressive, Grade II-listed Chiltern barn, thought to date from the 15th century. A huge, 65ft-long entertaining space with a two-bedroom annexe at the far end, it has been the scene of many a memorable gathering during the Palmer family’s tenure.