Estate Overview

The Lees Court Estate, during the early 1900’s, was 85,000 acres. Today the Estate is 6,900 acres with a core of 2,663 acres around the villages of Sheldwich and Badlesmere with the balance at The Swale Estuary, Oare and Faversham Creeks.

The Estate includes two principal traditional let farms, a grazing and horticultural tenancies with around 550 acres of woodland. There are about 8 houses on the Estate, occupied by current and retired employees, residential and agricultural tenants as well as over 100 other buildings.

Most income comes from the usual ways expected from a traditional rural estate, including farm and residential rents, sporting income and other miscellaneous sources. There is some income derived from timber sales although in recent years this has been exceeded by investment in planting new trees and maintaining approximately 250,000 trees replanted as a result of the 1987 hurricane.

Lees Court Estate is managed in a way that respects the local community and Church, acknowledging that it provides important jobs and homes for many families and above all ensuring that this way of life is able to continue.