Brooklands Farm – South Gorley
Crispin Sampson of Brooklands Farm, in South Gorley in the west of the New Forest, inherited the 70-acre farm in 2019. Since then, he has re-introduced cattle to run on the Forest, planted orchards for agroforestry and focused on increasing the conservation value of the farm.
Areas of the farm have been left with longer grass cover to encourage voles with the aim of allowing barn owls and kestrels to return. The owl and kestrel box from a previous FiPL grant will help this process. A kestrel has already started to show interest in nesting in the barn owl box. The farm is ideal bat habitat with pasture interspersed with hedges and woodland. Bat boxes will increase the opportunity for bats to thrive. The pine marten box is to encourage the New Forest pine martens to user the farm woodland, hopefully reducing the number of grey squirrels in turn improving the woodland for other native species.
Thousands of hedging plants have been planted on the farm and new orchards (with the support of The Tree Council). Capturing the rainwater from the barn will allow these to be watered in future drought years and reduce runoff in winter.
Crispin Sampson says: ‘A key learning is to speak to the NFLAS to see how the FiPL grants available could support you to improve nature, the environment and make your farm more resilient to climate change. The forms are simple to complete but get them in early to avoid a rush to complete work at the end of the deadline.’
