Dick and John Wheelock inherited the Treowen estate in 1991. The estate comprises 250 acres of farmland, 190 acres of woodland and Treowen, a Jacobean manor house. At the time only nine of the twelve bedrooms were habitable.<\/p>\n
Both brothers had farmed at Treowen in partnership with their parents. Both were diagnosed with farmers\u2019 lung in the early 1980s and so decided to give up farming in 1986. The farm was let on a five year tenancy while their parents and one of their sisters continued to live at Treowen. Dick started a new business making and restoring furniture. John trained as a chartered accountant.<\/p>\n
By 1992 the family had moved out of Treowen, and the estate income from agriculture and forestry had not proved sufficient over the years to provide for the maintenance of Treowen. There was an urgent need to find a financially sustainable future for the estate.<\/p>\n
Two major sources of income were identified: the letting of Treowen for self-catering holidays and the residential conversion of the redundant cow sheds and loose boxes close to Treowen. Fortunately, in the 1970s the main farm buildings had been moved to a more sheltered site in Treowen Wood several hundred yards from the house so there was little agricultural use of any of the farm buildings close to Treowen.<\/p>\n
By 2012 the letting of Treowen for self-catering holidays and the letting of the residential conversion of the cow sheds and loose boxes had secured the financial sustainability of the estate. Four two-bedroom houses and one one-bedroom house had been created largely with their own labour.<\/p>\n
At the same time with grant aid from the Tir Gofal agri-environmental scheme the biodiversity of the estate had been substantially increased by;<\/p>\n
The next stage of the journey was to diversify the income of the estate and to reduce its carbon footprint by investing in renewable energy. The oil-fired boilers for the heating of Treowen and the residential conversions were replaced with two central biomass boilers heating all these properties. The two oil fired boilers were recycled to provide a backup for biomass boilers. All the roofs of the modern barns with a suitable aspect were covered in solar panels. The estate is now a net exporter of electricity.<\/p>\n
An electric vehicle charging point, powered by the solar panels on the barn nearest to Treowen was installed available free of charge to anyone.<\/p>\n
In June 2026 Dick and John Wheelock donated Treowen to a newly formed charity, Treowen CIO. The trustee’s aim is to manage Treowen in a way that preserves and Treowen’s unique character and history. They recognise that the gardens and wider landscape are integral to this character, and should be carefully managed in a way that protects and enhances this character while responding to the climate and nature emergencies.<\/p>\n
Find our more about Treowen CIO<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dick and John Wheelock inherited the Treowen estate in 1991. The estate comprises 250 acres of farmland, 190 acres of woodland and Treowen, a Jacobean manor house. At the time … Continue reading Our journey to sustainability<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"page-templates\/full-width-page.php","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-532","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t