2009 was a spectacular year for the Estates & Farm Agency Division. Starting with the purchase of the Dalham Hall Estate on the Suffolk/Cambridgeshire borders extending to 3495 acres purchased for a client in the region of £45million.

There was a double whammy in the West Country where two estates exchanged and completed simultaneously, one of 1060 acres, the other of 1540 acres with a total value of nearly £20million.

Back in Suffolk, The Rushford Estate went under offer on the first day of advertising over the guide price of £10million and Docking Lodge Farm in Norfolk extending to 1264 acres sold quickly with good competition. Further north, The Scrainwood Estate in Northumberland, extending to 1048 acres of unbelievably beautiful countryside, sold after strong competition.

North of the Border the sale was concluded of the magnificent Craighall Castle, a Scottish baronial castle in the heart of Perthshire with farmland and fishing on the River Ericht.

Looking forward we hope that The Kiddington Estate in Oxfordshire offered with a guide of £42million will all exchange early in the New Year but we anticipate 2010 will be short on supply with less land coming to the market and prices nudging up gently.