Velhurst Farm

Horses on top: Conservation at Velhurst

Velhurst Farm is an ancient agricultural holding. Current field shapes are shown as established on 18th century maps but appear of an even earlier antiquity. The land is set out amidst coppices locally called “roues” a word redolent with French which suggests a Norman origin. These roues do indeed appear to be ancient roads and remain largely intact and easily discernable from their flatness, although they are now woodland and mature trees grow on the piste.

The 15th century origin farmhouse is thought to be one of the oldest structures in the village although it has been much modified and extended over the centuries and not always with great respect for the past, hence much of the most original material (wattle and daub) is now confined to the attics. The building is Grade 2 listed. In his interwar history of the village, a former rector of St Nicholas Church in Alfold noted the association of the house with smuggling and recalled Kipling’s Puck of Pook’s Hill.

Five-and-twenty ponies,
Trotting through the dark -
Brandy for the Parson,
‘Baccy for the Clerk;
Laces for a lady; letters for a spy,
And watch the wall, my darling, while the Gentlemen go by!

There is still a “hidden” closest at Velhurst which is said would have been used to hide the booty.

Velhurst Farm’s meadows were ploughed and given over to barley during the phase of the Second World War when the Ministry of Food (mad even then) imagined it could feed Britain by turning perfectly good grass into poor yields of cereal.

By the fiftes Velhurst was back to grazing animals, including from time to time sheep, cattle and horses, with horses becoming the most important animals in the past decade, in common with agricultural properties all over this part of the Surrey/West Sussex weald.

This is a general trend in southeast England and also seems to be to some extent around many other large cities where the rural economy has tilted from the production of food to something that has more to do with a revival of the human interest in horses, supposedly more than a century after the motor car made them largely redundant.

This is a golden age for the horse, who has never been so pampered, lived so long, and converted so many large fortunes into small ones. Clogs to clogs in three generations, is one phrase that comes to mind. La plus noble conquête qui l’homme ait jamais faite, said Georges Louis Leclerc, comte deBuffon. (I know this because it was taught to me by my French mistress, Yvette.)
But who has conquered? It seems to me the horse is the winner. La plus noble conquête qui le cheval ait jamais faite.
With some of the original acres recently restored, Velhurst Farm currently has 55 acres divided among hay fields, fenced horse paddocks, coppices, woodlands, wetlands and ponds. Although the farm is now essentially equestrian in character, there has been tremendous scope for conservation in the form of new plantings, new habitats and the coppicing of existing woodland.

As the farm is easily capable of producing sufficient forage for its equine inhabitants, without the need to maximimise production from any field, it has been possible to extend wooded areas by cutting the corner off fields and by creating new lines of woodland, using native species.

The farm borders Velhurst Copse and Sydney Wood which are managed by the Forestry Commission hence stands in the most densely forested part of the most densely forested county in England.

Velhurst Farm has offered under suitable conditions to allow the diversion of the Wey & Arun Canal from Sidney Wood across Rosemary Lane to rejoin the former route to Loxwood.

Velhurst Farm supports the Wey & Arun Canal Trust.  We hope that we can help the Trust achieve its objectives and also extend the navigaton for horse-propelled barges through Velhurst Farm and Sidney Wood.

Velhurst Farm offers various trails and obstacles for mounted riders and driving horses in harness.

Wild animals seen at Velhurst include adders, grass snakes, numerous varieties of newts and other amphibians, field mice, voles, and a range of birds including a family of buzzards. Very healthy ponds are host to a wide variety of fish. It is hoped to post a more detailed “census” of wildlife in due course.

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