Welcome to Madresfield Estate and Court, located at the foot of the Malvern Hills
Madresfield Court and Estate is situated in beautiful, rural Worcestershire and nestles between the Malvern Hills and the River Severn. It has been home to the Lygon family for over 900 years and has never been bought or sold since records began in 1120.
The house is first mentioned specifically in a charter of Henry I, dating from the 1120s, and it is known that William de Bracy lived at the Court in 1260. His descendants, the Lygon family, have lived here ever since.
The house has a rich history, with both Edward Elgar and Evelyn Waugh being frequent visitors, and later during the second world war, arrangements were made for the Royal Family to reside at Madresfield had they been forced to leave London.
The current occupants are Lucy Chenevix-Trench and her family; Lucy is the great niece of the last Earl, and she and her family are the 28th and 29th generations of the family to live at Madresfield.
Deeply aware of Madresfield’s long and rich history, our team work together to sustain both the land and its buildings. We are guided by our goals to nurture this land, improve the soil, cherish our ecology, and to value our community. Our history reminds us that we are temporary custodians, and our abiding aim is to leave things better than we found them.
Vision and Ethos
As custodians not only of Madresfield Court and its long history, but also of the farmland, woods and meadows within the Madresfield Estate, the Trustees and the team on the ground try to take a long term approach to all significant decisions. We would like both the Court and the Estate to be enjoyed by visitors and walkers for many generations to come.
We are very focussed on the biodiversity of the environment around us, and we are inspired daily by the beauty of our landscape and the Malvern Hills AONB. As farmers, we try to farm with nature rather than against it, restoring soil biology through regenerative farming practices, and producing healthy, delicious food in ways which are good for the environment and good for our planet. We particularly value working as part of a thriving rural community.
We are also motivated by the extraordinary examples of Arts and Crafts decoration in Madresfield Court and particularly in the Chapel see 'Madresfield Court'. The Arts and Crafts movement, flourishing between 1880-1920, was in part a reaction to the rapid industrialisation of that period, and the movement celebrated craftsmanship, beauty and purpose, drawing design inspiration from nature.
We see many parallels between the Arts and Crafts movement and the shift towards regenerative agriculture being practised by an increasing number of farmers across the world. We very much welcome the continuing advances in technology, but we believe that technology should also be used to enhance our understanding of nature and therefore enable us to work better in harmony with it.
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