There is an opportunity to purchase a 230 acre property in Herstmonceux.

There is no house included, and most of the buildings are rented out to someone who bought 100 acres of the farm sometime ago. They can rent the building until 2026.

There is some advantage to this, as we can build a house and some new buildings.

My idea will be to plan an orchard and with a new house we would plan to include a place to store the fruit and be able to make fruit pies & jams to sell locally.

Also to produce Lamb & beef for the members and sell any surplus to local families.

Grow in our own corn to feed the livestream.

There would be a layout near the house so members can stay as required in yurts, mobile caravanettes and some modern camping accommodation, we would create some shrub & flower beds area for this, and possibly a marquee to enjoy the produce and meet other members, with some walks and talks as we go along.

There are views of the South Downs and it runs to the Pevensey levels.

Members can take part in helping with the growing and harvesting if they wish to be involved.

The farm is next to the local church, and we can use the church for gatherings and join the services there.

It depends on the take-up of shares, but we could have up to 100 families putting in £25,000 each, that would give us enough to purchase the land and build a house with storage and some capital to plant an orchard and have some cattle and sheep etc.

We may find a few larger investors/ members that will take up 10 or 20 shares, but at the moment we are just receiving those responding from the advert.

This would take a little time to get established, but once we are running there would be an annual gathering of members to invite members to consider the next step. Would hope there would be a surplus to reinvest and payout a dividend, while one is still investing in the property.

At the moment we just need to raise enough capital to own the land, then we can plan the first stage of the venture. which is as soon as possible to plant 100 apple, pear, plumb and cherry trees, and have some breeding sheep and some cattle. We can’t have cattle until we have the buildings to house them.

It might be an idea to have some rare breeds at some point as we do have 230 acres.

With the case for planting more trees we could collect acorns and ash keys etc. to grow and sell to would be places where new tree planting will be promoted.

Also, there is a possibility for some vertical farming to produce some salad crops.

At this stage we are inviting you to say how much you would like to put in, and when received enough offers, we will contact you to visit the farm, so you can make a firm commitment to the plans.

To find out more visit: www.landandleisurecoop.co.uk