Land and farms on offer from East Anglia to Aberdeenshire

While relatively little has been brought to the market so far this spring, there are contrasting opportunities launched this week.

Retirement brings a 415-acre arable farm with diversifications to the market at Westley Waterless, near Newmarket.

Westley Hall Farm, which is being launched by Brown & Co at a guide price of £6.3m, has been farmed in an arable rotation on a contract farming agreement.

The farm spans two main holdings at Westley Waterless and Burrough End, and there is also land at Weston Green, near Weston Colville. 

See also: Land markets – high level of interest expected in scarce launches

The Grade 2 soils are mostly slowly permeable calcareous clay and fine loam over clay with slowly permeable subsoils.

A Sustainable Farming Incentive agreement has been in place since May 2024 with an end date of 30 April 2027.

Among the modern and traditional farm buildings is a range of commercial units and buildings let for light industrial and storage, currently generating a gross annual rental income of £49,500.

There is also a DIY livery business, a pair of two-bedroom houses and a three-bedroom property.

It is offered for sale as a whole or in up to six lots.

Bare arable land

Land at Ulgham Grange © Michie Group

Another arable farming opportunity exists a few miles from Morpeth in Northumberland, where the Michie Group is bringing 80 acres of mostly productive arable land to the market on the outskirts of Ulgham.

Ulgham Grange has 65 acres of Grade 3 arable land laid out in four adjoining fields, which are readily accessible from the road by a track. Woodland makes up the remaining 15 acres.

The land can consistently produce high yields of combinable crops.

There is a holdover provision until 1 October 2025 to allow the seller to harvest the growing crop.

The land is subject to a 25-year overage clause that requires 25% of any uplift in value on the grant of planning consent for any renewable energy development to be paid to the current vendor.

The Michie Group is marketing the block at a guide price of £525,000.

Period houses in Herefordshire and Yorkshire 

Croose Farm © Savills

In Herefordshire, Savills has launched a 135-acre farm with a listed farmhouse and a secondary residential property.

Croose Farm, in Woolhope, has a mixture of arable, pasture and woodland with mostly productive red soil, some of it forming part of Woolhope Dome.

Part of the farm lies within Wye Valley’s national landscape (formerly called area of outstanding natural beauty) and it also falls within a nitrate vulnerable zone.

The farm buildings are traditional stone and red brick, which selling agent Will Chanter says have potential for conversion.

The Grade II listed farmhouse has its origins in the 16th and 17th centuries, and has been renovated and modernised in recent years.

Next to the farmhouse is a two-bedroom cottage, which is currently let as holiday accommodation.  A shoot has been run for a number of years on the farm.

Savills has set a guide price of £3.1m.

Stone House Farm © Grays

Another holding on the market with a 17th century farmhouse is Stonehouse Farm in the North York Moors National Park.

This grassland farm, marketed by GSC Grays at £1.5m, has 62 acres of ring-fenced land which includes 23 acres of mowable pasture. The rest of the land is mixed permanent and rough grazing, running up to a moor.

There are also grazing rights for 200 sheep on Bilsdale West Moor.

With two cottages as well as the main farmhouse, it offers an excellent business opportunity for holiday lets, says John Coleman, head of farm agency at GSC Grays.

The traditional stone-built farmhouse has been extended into the adjoining byre.

A solar PV system with a Feed-in Tariff agreement brings extra income.

An opportunity also exists in the forestry sector with Savills seeking offers of more than £4.9m for Arntilly Wood, an 887-acre commercial conifer forest at Banchory in Aberdeenshire, mostly planted in the 1960s.

There has been some recent replanting following clear felling, while a further previously felled area requires replanting, which would be the responsibility of the purchaser.

This would provide a further 57 acres, bringing the total crop area to 84% of the whole.