LOCATED on the north Norfolk coast between the fishing port of Wellsnext-the-Sea and the sailing centre of Burnham Overy Staithe, the tiny village of Holkham was once a landing with access to the sea via a tidal creek to the harbour at Wells. Following the arrival of the pioneering Coke family in the early 1700s, the land around the creek was gradually reclaimed from the sea to form part of the now 25,000acre Holkham estate, a thriving farming, tourism and property business, the avowed aim of which is to be ‘the UK’s most pioneering and sustainable rural estate’.
The beating heart of the estate is Grade I- listed Holkham Hall, a grand Palladian mansion built for Thomas Coke, 1st Earl of Leicester, between 1734 and 1735, and now the home of the 8th Earl, who has inherited the Coke family’s passion for conservation, farming, forestry and gamekeeping, with the maintenance of the estate’s diverse landscape of farmland, woodland, parkland, saltmarsh and coastline. It includes the 9,600-acre Holkham National Nature Reserve, which is managed jointly with Natural England. It all makes for an idyllic coastal landscape that has been described as ‘a balm for the soul’.
Denne historien er fra July 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra July 19, 2023-utgaven av Country Life UK.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds