Wimpole Home Farm

Wimpole Hall is a magnificent Georgian mansion with extensive formal and working kitchen gardens set in Grade 1 landscaped parkland. The original house was built in 1640 by Lord Chicheley and has undergone various changes over the years which can be attributed to famous architects such as Gibbs, Flitcroft and Soane. The parkland was landscaped by Bridgeman, Brown and Repton and boasts spectacular vista, a Gothic folly and serpentine lakes.

Wimpole Home Farm was built in 1794 by Sir John Soane for the 3rd Earl of Hardwicke, who was passionately interested in farming and agricultural improvement. It is now a working Rare Breed farm, open to the public. Sir John Soane´s model farm is one of the best surviving examples of the agricultural improving zeal which gripped the English landowning class in the late eighteenth century. It has been called the Agricultural Revolution. The model farms were planned to be integrated working units as well as architectural masterpieces. Each element of the design had its place in a complex farming system expressed by Soane and other architects. Buildings were ranged around oval or square yards where manure might be stored, hay and straw kept, or animals walked through. The main elements were a barn for storing and threshing grain, cow stalls, stables for the working horses, pigsties, cart sheds, slaughter house or area. A dairy was maintained some distance away from the other buildings. At Wimpole Home Farm, the present dairy was not built until 1860, though Soane had included one in the original plans.

In addition, the estate has a fully equipped Blacksmith´s Forge and Woodyard (awaiting restoration) not currently open to the public and a 400 hectare modern arable farm, managed to a high degree of environmental stewardship.

The Victorian Stable Block, now housing the Visitor Centre and National Trust Shop, still retains many of its original features. The property was left to the National Trust in 1976 by Elsie Bambridge, daughter of Rudyard Kipling.