Sustainability
Wildlife, both big and small, play a hugely important role in ensuring the overall health of the countryside.
With the food chain so closely interlinked, small areas of neglect can quickly have significant implications. One of Preston Hall's key responsibilities as a conserver of the land is to ensure that everything is done to protect and enhance wildlife.
As farming practices have changed over the years greater importance has been placed on woodlands, hedgerows, water courses and ponds to help provide the perfect habitat for wildlife.
As part of the estates conservation strategy a number of environmental enhancement projects have been implemented with more planned for the near future.
Hedge Planting
Hedges provide key wildlife corridors and shelter for mammals and provide important food and nesting areas for the wild birds. Over the past 20 years the estate has repaired long sections of hedges and planted over 900m of new hedge.
Wildflower Meadows
20 acres of wildflower meadow has been resown to provide a pollen rich mix of flowers and grasses. This patchwork of wild flowers attracts a high number of bees and insects that rely on the pollen, as well as looking beautiful.
Field Margins
A few meters of wild grass margins are left around the fields to provide the perfect habitat for nesting birds in the spring and a perfect foraging ground for rodents such as the field mouse in the summer.
Renewables
Due to the various activities on the farm and estate, there is a large energy demand throughout the year.
To help reduce the impact on the land, the estate has invested in a number of renewable energy projects. These initiatives have reduced the reliance on fossil fuels, whilst also helping to reduce the carbon footprint. Continual monitoring is important to ensure improvements can be made as technology advances.
Key Projects
Dragon Heat Boiler
The first project was a straw boiler located at Rosemains Farm. As part of the district heating network the boiler supplied heat to the grain drier, farm buildings and provides low cost heating.
200kw Hizomat Boiler
In 2015 a 200kw boiler was installed to heat Preston Hall, not only has this reduced fuel bills but also ensured that the house can be maintained at a constant temperature helping to preserve the fabric of the building.
995kw Hizomat Biofire
Our most recent project has been to replace the original farm boiler with a higher capacity, more efficient wood chip boiler, helping to further reduce our carbon footprint.
Preston Hall is keen to increase their green credentials and would be interested to hear of any new technologies or ideas to help achieve their sustainability aims. The estate continually monitors trends to ensure improvements can be made as new advances are made.