The Farms and Estate

When purchased in 1947 the college estate consisted of Broomfield Hall and six farms - Broomfield, Lime, Top, Tunnel, Brook and Church farms. Four farms (Broomfield, Brook, Lime and Top) totalled approximately 354 acres and were farmed by the Committee for the immediate purpose of the Farm Institute, leaving two farms (Tunnel and Church) comprising 115 acres in the occupancy of tenants. It was thought that the farms each possessed distinctive features valuable for teaching and demonstration purposes. Brook Farm was pulled down and amalgamated into Lime Farm. Tunnel Farm at the opposite end of the railway cutting to Brook Farm was farmed for a few years as a small holding of 22 acres as a demonstration unit but was of an uneconomic size and the project abandoned. In 1980 a further 50 acres of land was purchased at King's Corner and this land had to be fully drained before it could be farmed.

 Top Farm, because of its situation at the extreme northern point of the estate was inconvenient for education purposes and in 1958 work started on a purpose built farm which was closer to the main campus and the residential student hostels - it was to be called New Top Farm.

 The new buildings included a piggery for a herd of Large Whites together with buildings for cattle, grain and fodder. A herd of 30 Dairy Red Polls were housed in straw yards and milked through a small straight 4 tandem parlour with direct into-churn milking. Houses for the farm staff were added later!

(Source: 1997 Jubilee Magazine)       (Can any old students name any of the people in these photographs? Or the cow!!! - Editor)