Peers visit the Windsor Estate – a test bed for how people, farming and nature can thrive together

Last week, The Crown Estate hosted Peers for the Planet for a visit to the Windsor Estate - one of the UK’s most important environmental and ecological sites, with a history dating back to 1066.

The visit offered a chance to meet staff from The Crown Estate, along with the conservationists and farmers who manage and care for the estate’s unique habitats and wildlife, as well as its ambitious restoration programmes and nature-friendly farming practices.

On a safari through Windsor Great Park, we learned about the ancient and veteran oak trees and the estate’s long history of land stewardship over the past thousand years. The estate encompasses extensive mixed woodland and forestry, organic farms (primarily beef and dairy), nationally important ornamental gardens, and popular visitor attractions.

We saw first-hand how a major landscape restoration programme is being delivered through the planting of trees, hedgerows, and woodlands across the park. This work is enhancing nature connectivity and helping to build climate resilience across habitats, landscapes, and farm operations.

The Windsor Estate is also being used as a test bed to trial conservation and land management practices that could be replicated across The Crown Estate’s broader portfolio of land, urban, and marine sites throughout the UK. It’s a careful balancing act: providing public access to one of the UK’s most visited outdoor spaces, while also developing blueprints for managing land that supports food production, economic development, and nature conservation in tandem.

A highlight for us had to be visiting the iconic “Elephant Tree” and learning about the estate’s 7,000–10,000 ancient trees, and the succession planting strategy aimed at increasing the diversity and resilience of tree cover in response to a changing climate. We learned that the estate is experiencing its driest spring in 200 years and heard how water scarcity is being addressed through improved irrigation and the creation of new ponds to support both farms and wildlife.

We were also fortunate to visit the Windsor Farms, where we heard from the farm manager about the transition to organic farming, and met the herd of Jersey cows, whose lineage can be traced back to Queen Victoria, who first introduced them. We were fascinated to learn about the waterbeds installed in the cattle sheds by the late Duke of Edinburgh, ensuring a high-welfare, comfortable winter break from the fields for the cows.

The Estate is a compelling case study in how environmental, social, and economic needs can be aligned. It’s delivering housebuilding, reducing emissions through EVs and renewable energy deployment, supporting farmers to diversify income streams, collaborating on rewilding and nature recovery, and improving farming practices - all while maintaining levels of food production that supply the ever-popular Windsor Farm Shop (which we just managed to squeeze in a visit to!).

Our thanks to Nick, Paul, Anna, Anastasia and Mark and the rest of The Crown Estate and Windsor Farm teams for hosting such an inspiring and informative visit