Two substantial farming estates known as The Coldham and Goole Estates in the counties of Cambridgeshire and South Yorkshire are for sale on behalf of Urban&Civic as whole units or in multiple lots. Combined, the estates amount to over 8,350 acres, including 20 residential properties and 30 wind turbines. Agents, Savills and Bidwells are jointly handling the sales process.

The Coldham Estate near Wisbech in Cambridgeshire

Including 4,179 acres (1,691 hectares), the Coldham Estate is for sale as whole or in three lots.

Guide price £43.5 million for the whole.

Farming

Located in the Cambridgeshire Fens, renowned for its fertile soils, the majority of the land is classified as grade 1 with the remainder being grade 2. The rich alluvial soils are versatile and suitable for growing cereals, oil seed crops as well as potatoes, field vegetables, onions and sugar beet.

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There has been significant investment in the infrastructure in recent years and the crop storage facilities include 8,300 tonnes of grain storage and 4,060 tonnes of ambient potato storage. Two reservoirs with a total storage capacity of 230,000m³ are situated on the Estate, which also has the benefit of three summer abstraction licences and two underground irrigation mains servicing the majority of the land.

Residential

The residential portfolio comprises a nine-bedroom house; Coldham Hall, a farmhouse and 13 cottages, adjacent to the farmsteads or in the village of Coldham.

Renewable energy

The Coldham Estate includes a number of renewable energy income streams through various leases.

Coldham Wind Farm, commissioned in 2005, includes eight wind turbines and a substation whilst White Mill Windfarm, commissioned in 2012, includes six wind turbines on freehold-owned land.

Terms are agreed with Scottish Power Renewables for the construction of a new 43-acre ground mounted solar farm with work due to commence imminently.

The Goole Estate near Goole in South Yorkshire

Including 4,206 acres (1,701 hectares), the Goole Estate is for sale as a whole or in four lots.

Guide price £44 million for the whole.

Farming

The Estate lies within a renowned commercial farming district between the River Ouse and the Isle of Axholme, approximately 8 miles east of Goole on the Lincolnshire Yorkshire border.

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The land is a mixture of productive grade 1 and 2, well suited to producing high yielding crops of wheat, barley, oilseed rape, potatoes, vining peas and sugar beet. It lies predominantly within a ring fence with two off-lying blocks. 

The majority of the Estate is farmed in-hand farm, and there is a small investment farm of about 80 acres. There has been significant investment in the infrastructure and crop storage in recent years, which now includes 10,400 tonnes of combinable crop storage, largely connected into a high capacity continuous flow drier, and 3,500 tonnes of ambient controlled potato storage. Irrigation is provided by two reservoirs with a combined capacity of 115,000m3 and various summer and winter abstraction licences along with two irrigation mains serving a large part of the land.

The Goole Estate’s amenity value does benefit from its proximity to the Blacktoft Sands, which adjoin the northern boundary and are the largest tidal reed beds in England. 

Residential

The Estate includes two farmhouses; one of which historically had planning consent for redevelopment into a modern eco farmhouse and visitor reception facility. In addition, there are another three residential properties.

Renewable energy

There are two separate wind turbine schemes across the Estate known as Twin Rivers Wind Farm and Goole Fields II Wind Farm.

Twin Rivers Wind Farm, commissioned in 2015, has 14 wind turbines, whilst Goole Fields II Wind Farm, commissioned in 2015, has two wind turbines.

Bidwells & Savills Joint Selling Agents

Philip Leech, a director of Urban&Civic comments, “Following a strategic review of our land holdings, the decision has been taken to sell The Coldham and The Goole Estates which fall outside the parameters of our current property portfolio and core strategy for land ownership. Proceeds from the sale will be used towards funding future strategic land acquisitions and property management.”

Charlie Paton, Director at Savills in the National Farms & Estates team, the joint selling agents, comments, “Properties of this scale and quality very rarely come onto the open market. The versatility and productive capacity of these two farming units, which benefit from diverse additional income streams (especially from renewable energy), mean these estates are well placed to operate and deliver in the changing agricultural and environmental landscape”.

Roland Bull Head of Rural Investment at Bidwells, managing agents and joint selling agents, comments; “It’s not often you see two big blocks of such productive and versatile land hit the market at the same time, which means this twin sale presents both existing owners and new entrants with the opportunity to buy into the agricultural land market, at scale, and in a single transaction”.