Spring 2025 Newsletter

Welcome to our Spring 2025 Newsletter

Happy Easter and welcome to our Spring newsletter packed with our latest news. We’ve had a great response from the local community to our plans for a farm shop and café. You can find out why BBC Radio 4 visited us, read about the local bird who popped up in Ireland and discover the new Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year and his links to Courteenhall. Lots more too.

The Knot - the name of our new farm shop and cafe

We’ve had a great response from the local community to the news about our new farm shop and café, which is scheduled to open in early 2026. Since our last newsletter was published, we have been discussing what to call it – and have all agreed on ‘The Knot’, which links to Courteenhall’s family crest. The Knot will showcase the best of local producers and we’re keen to hear from suppliers on our doorstep. Over the last month, we have been focusing on local drink suppliers and are delighted to have discovered over 60 suppliers of wines, ales, ciders and juices, amongst others, all based within our county or in neighbouring ones. From Stonyfield Wine, who grow English sparkling wine just down the road from us in Blisworth; to Phipps Brewery, which has a history dating back to 1801, and within ten miles of us; Wharf Distillery, an independent small-batch copper-pot distillery producing a range of spirits and liqueurs from Towcester; or Floyers Fruit Farm, who make award-winning apple juice from their farm in Flore - these are just a sample of some of the amazing producers we have been in touch with.

BBC Radio 4 at Courteenhall

Great to welcome BBC Radio 4’s Sarah Swadling to Courteenhall and to show her around the Estate for the On Your Farm programme. Sarah had a great chat with Johnny about how he believes a healthy society, healthy food and healthy soil are all connected.She asked him about how he has started from the soil up in reshaping the way today's Estate is farmed, the regenerative crop growing techniques he has adopted and how Courteenhall has reintroduced native rare breed cattle and is restoring habitats. Sarah also talked to Alex Preston, founder of New Leaf Learning, who explained how nature-based outdoor learning, which takes place at Courteenhall, can transform the confidence and behaviour of the children who take part.

• Listen back here.
• Schools interested in finding out more about the education offer from New Leaf Learning can contact Alex Preston at info@newleafl.com

Love British Food

We’re looking forward to giving a farm tour and showcasing our work to a group of public sector caterers in June. The visit is being organised by Love British Food to show caterers from the care home sector, universities and local authorities how food produced through regenerative farming practices like ours can help with health outcomes

Courteenhall goldfinch spotted in Ireland

A male goldfinch first captured on the Courteenhall Estate during a ringing session has been re-trapped 579km away on the west coast of Ireland.The goldfinch was ringed on 12 October 2023 in a copse on the Estate near Roade along with 200 other Goldfinches by ornithology expert Chris Payne, a licensed senior ringer and trainer for Northants Ringing Group and his ringing group.It was then found 496 days later by another ringer on 19 February in Ardeamush in County Clare, Ireland.

We’ve also been on a bird hunt

Encouraging more birds to make the Estate their home is one of our environmental missions. Each year we take part in the GWCT Big Farmland Bird Count and record the different species of birds and their numbers we spot.It's a good way for us, as farmers, to measure the impact of our own conservation work.We found species including: Barn Owl, Blue Tit, Buzzard, Dunnock, Green Woodpecker, Nuthatch, Mistle Thrush, Tree Creeper and Song Thrush.

Sausage making day

Our Berkshire pigs are raised on the Estate where they are free to forage in the woods. We had a great turnout from the Courteenhall team to help make over 3,000 sausages from five of our pigs on our annual sausage making day.

Tiny toad rescue

We came to the rescue of dozens of tiny toads who were a bit stranded and needed carefully relocating to a safe new home by our lake.

Entrepreneur Alumni award for Johnny...and a podcast

Cranfield School of Management, one of the world’s most influential business schools, presented Johnny with an award for his entrepreneurship and visionary leadership in the agricultural sector. Johnny was the winner of their 2025 Entrepreneur Alumni Award and was praised for his ‘deep commitment to sustainability and innovation’.

• Earlier this month Johnny was interviewed for the Estate Matters podcast where he talked about his two careers – first as a doctor and today in estate management. Listen back here.

Fortnum & Mason event in London

Johnny was a guest on a panel of speakers at Fortnum & Mason's Food & Drink Studio in London talking about how to scale regenerative agriculture.He was joined by fellow guests Farshad Kazemian, founder and CEO of The Ethical Butcher, Thomasina Miers, founder and CEO of Wahaca and Duncan Rawson, Partner at European Food and Farming Partnerships.

A winning stroke

The winner of this year’s Sky Arts’ Landscape Artist of the Year has a very close connection to Courteenhall.Ben MacGregor, Johnny’s brother-in-law, regularly paints at a studio space on the Estate. A self-taught artist, his prize was a commission to create a landscape in the south of France which is now being exhibited at the prestigious Courtauld Gallery in London.Ben’s Impressionistic style of painting on display in his submission of a Wiltshire country lane secured him a place on the tenth series of Landscape Artist of the Year, hosted by Stephen Mangan, with some of the filming for the programme done at Courteenhall.

Lambing season

Our Gawdy Hall shepherdess Hannah Murrell has been having a very busy lambing season. She is in the middle of helping to deliver up to 300 rare and native breed lambs at our sister estate in Norfolk.

Retired gardener revisits Gawdy Hall

We welcomed back to Gawdy Hall retired Estate Gardener John Spurdens along with his wife Pat and grandson Will. They had a tour of the walled garden and it was lovely to hear John’s stories about life on the Estate until his retirement in 2014.

Our second Wildfarmed crop

Last harvest saw our first crop of wheat grown to Wildfarmed Regenerative Standards at Gawdy Hall.We’re pleased to be growing our relationship with Wildfarmed and have just drilled a new crop which will be ready later this year. At both Courteenhall and our sister estate, we’re dedicated to farming sustainably and to nurturing healthy soil.

Gold Fair Payment Code Award

We’re proud that our Finance team is one of the few to have won a Gold medal from the Fair Payment Code.The Fair Payment Code is a tiered system of awards which encourages businesses across the UK to pay fairly and quickly. A Gold award is presented to businesses who pay 95% of all their supplier invoices within 30 days. Businesses were presented with their awards by the Small Business Commissioner at the Fair Payment Code Awards in London. ‍