About us

The Countryside Restoration Trust is a farming and conservation charity which aims to protect and restore Britain's countryside with wildlife-friendly and commercially viable agriculture. The Trust is committed to promoting the importance of a living and working countryside through education, demonstration and community involvement.

The Countryside Restoration Trust is establishing a network of demonstration farms throughout Britain and is working to ensure that all Trust properties are a focus of inspiration and education for farmers, members of the general public and politicians.

In this time of crisis within agriculture, the work of the CRT is vital to help revitalise the countryside and restore its wildlife.

The CRT now has over 4,000 friends and manages over one thousand acres of land with properties in Cambridgeshire, Essex, Herefordshire, Lincolnshire, Norfolk, Surrey, Sussex and Yorkshire. Widely applauded for its animal husbandry, conservation initiatives and environmentally sensitive food production, the work of the Trust is a living and working example that sustainable, profitable and environmentally sensitive farming is a real possibility.

Our History

Over 15 years of success

The Countryside Restoration Trust was established in 1993 by the Chairman, Robin Page, the late Sir Laurens van der Post and the late artist and conservationist, Gordon Beningfield.

Launched in response to growing fears about intensive and industrialised farming, the CRT initially aimed to purchase land which had been intensively farmed, in order to restore it to a living countryside, rather than a lifeless food factory. The CRT promotes a working countryside using sensitive and sympathetic farming practices that encourage and protect wildlife to produce quality food. As the CRT has grown its aims have broadened to encompass purchasing farmland and woodland where traditional farming methods, wildlife habitat and biodiversity are under threat.

Annual Review and Accounts

                                Income April 2006 - March 2007  Total £1,610,806

                              Expenditure April 2006 - March 2007  Total £292,002

The tremendous gift of Green farm in Surrey gave rise to the exceptional income in the accounts this year.  In due course an endowment will ensure the maintenance and management of the farm into the future.

The Trust concluded the sale of the house left to the Trust by the generous legacy of one of our wonderful supporters.  The sale proceeds of £470,000 has enabled the Trust to considerably reduce its debt, putting it into a more stable position for the future.

Our core income continues to be the subscriptions and donations of our friends and supporters without whom we could not continue; but legacies are also vitally important, making a real difference to the work that we can do.

£92,135 was spent on charitable activities during the year, with much of this expenditure being for the managing and advising of our increasing portfolio of farms and land.  Much of our work on wildlife monitoring and conservation however, is carried out by teams of volunteers at each farm.