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The Farm
History
The Robertson family came to Chawton Park Farm in 1982, but the farm has been in existence for at least 250 years, probably longer. It was part of a large estate owned by Jane Austin's brother, but was sold off in about 1932.
The farm is 270 acres and has many historical features. In the 13th century the road from Farnham to Winchester passed through a wooded part of the farm which was known as 'The Pass of Alton' and this was frequented by robbers and thieves. In Medieval times there was a deer park and this is evident from the Park Pales which are still there today in various parts of the farm.
The traditional farm buildings have been built over many years to form a courtyard, some areas of the farm still show evidence of where the bricks were made. The buildings have had multiple uses over the years from housing cart horses to calves and lambs, to now being a school room. Until 2004 cereals were grown on the land. Now the farm has all been put down to grass to restore it back to a traditional parkland setting.
The Old Buildings
We have received a grant from Natural England through our membership of the HLS stewardship scheme to repair and restore the old buildings. The progress of this project can be followed on our diary page.
The Land
The land is split up into fields which are interspersed with small copses where we have put bird nesting boxes. The deer paddocks are surrounded by 6ft fences and the other fields are either grazed by sheep or conserved for hay and silage.
Under the environmental stewardship scheme the old arable land is being returned to rough grassland and an area of species rich semi natural grassland is being restored, returning it to its historic parkland setting. Areas of wild bird seed have also been planted to help with the bird life and we have provided owl boxes for our resident barn owls.
Soil
The land to the north of the valley is heavy clay over chalk with a plentiful supply of flints. Dells have been formed where the clay was extracted to make bricks. Land to the south of the valley is chalk with a thin layer of topsoil and chalk pits are still in evidence where chalk was extracted to apply to the poorer clay soils to help the crops grow.
Landscape
The farm lies on the eastern edge of the Hampshire Downs, the broad belt of chalk linking the Dorset Downs and Salisbury Plain in the west with the South Downs in the east. The Downs are a large-scale landscape of open rolling country on broad, gently domed undulating plateaux traversed by sheltered wooded valleys. There are numerous distinct hilltops, ridges and scarps supporting chalk down land.
The farm is situated within a sheltered wooded valley, with the southern ridge supporting chalk down land and the northern side a more open plateau area.