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Originally a dairy farm, today Warleigh Barton is a mixed livestock and arable farm that’s owned and run by Katherine Kent and her family, who are all engaged in farming, ecology and the arts.
The historic Warleigh estate dates back to the 11th century, when Sampson De Foliot sailed up the Tavy Estuary looking for a sheltered spot. Over time it was developed into a deer park and many of the (now veteran) trees were planted. The area is famous for its spectacular landscape and market gardening history, and is a haven for wildlife.
Warleigh Barton lies in the Tamar Valley AONB, defined and shaped by three rivers – the Tamar, the Tavy and the Lynher. It’s this close proximity to water that encourages such a diverse range of wildlife – and of course it’s extremely beautiful, too.
Sandwiched between the Tavy Estuary, Tamerton Creek, Tamerton Foliot and the Maristow estate, Warleigh Barton occupies a truly unique and inspiring location.
It’s so peaceful and tranquil that you’d never know that the port city of Plymouth is just a 15-minute drive away and is the perfect gateway to access the wider West Country. Enduringly popular with tourists, Devon and Cornwall boast a wide range of historic landmarks, beautiful beaches and National Trust properties (e.g. Saltram, Buckland Abbey and Castle Drogo). For those that seek solitude or are keen hikers, Dartmoor’s rugged and wild terrain and the ‘Tamar Valley Trail’ are both just a stone’s throw away.
Today, Warleigh Barton is a fully-diversified arable and livestock farm with green energy solutions, holiday accommodation and carp fishing alongside a full educational programme.
Warleigh Barton is a fascinating site with a rich history that dates back centuries. Evidence of a Bronze-age settlement has been found here, which goes to show how important a location this is.
Situated on the spine of a short promontory bounded by water on two sides with high ground to the north and south, ‘Hoskins’ suggests that this was an ancient landing place for, among others, Celtic holy men crossing the Tamar in the 6th century.
The earliest documentary reference to Warleigh dates from a fee-list of 1242 where the name takes the form ‘Wardlegh’ (a ‘clearing by the shore’). It’s likely that the coastal spit was coastal heathland and part of the commonage of the manor of Tamerton, which before the conquest had been held by “Ingvar”. ‘Tambreton’ is listed in Domesday among the holdings of Alured the Breton.
Risdon, the early 17th century historian of Devon, tells us that in the reign of King Stephen (1135-54) the manor of Tamerton was granted to Sampson De Foliot and that he made his principal dwelling at Warleigh.
History of the house
The earliest surviving fabric of the current house appears to date from late 15th/early 16th century, when the Copplestones acquired the manor of Tamerton Foliot. Major parts of the core date to the late 16th century, when the farm was ‘defined’.
Clues in the landscape indicate the land surrounding Warleigh House was laid out as a late medieval (or earlier) deer park – representing an important resource.
With marine and wetland resources nearby, and from at least the 16th century, the home farm of Warleigh Barton would have enabled the original estate of Warleigh House to be quite self-sufficient. Risdon described it as “wanting no necessaries that land or sea afford”.
At some point in the 17th or 18th century, the park was enclosed and turned over to arable cultivation. A document in 1836 refers to making a new road to the farm – building a bridge and culverting a brook. After this date, Old Warleigh Lane was consigned entirely to farm traffic, and the track towards Roborough lane became the main drive. Warleigh Lodge would have been built after this date.
The 1840 tithe map names three fields “Warren” (indicating a warren on the summit of a hill). Warren Plantation” and “Warren Lane” are still marked on OS maps. A curving boundary running from Horsham Farm at the head of Warleigh Marsh south and westwards to Warleigh Lodge, Old Warleigh Lane and parallel to Tamerton Lake towards Warleigh Wood may well be the boundary of the park referred to by a number of writers.
The Radcliffe family purchased Warleigh in 1741. It stayed in this family until the main house was sold away from the remaining estate in 1969, when it was turned into a nursing home. Nicholas Radcliffe sold the remaining farm – the core of what had been a much bigger estate to the Kents in 1985. At the point of purchase in 1985, the farm had recently ceased to be a dairy farm.
Having lived and farmed at Warleigh since 1995, Katherine is highly experienced in land management and is passionate about environmental awareness. She’s recently become a Farming Ambassador for the NFU and has run many educational visits to Warleigh, along with environmental, craft and wellbeing weekends.
Katherine is a highly trained artist and illustrator and has lectured at Plymouth University for 10 years. She was Head of Art at Mount House School in Tavistock and is involved with the Dartmoor Hill Farm project, training her 4 border collies to muster sheep (to varying degrees of success!)
Hermione is our Wilder Warleigh Programme Coordinator. Her focus is to continue the environmental education, share our wildlife camera footage, Tamar & Tavy Osprey Project, and expand our events and offers, so that more people may get to experience the wildlife at Warleigh.
Hermione has a background in agroecology, having worked as Dartington Trust’s Incubator Programme Coordinator, and studied the Sustainable Horticulture Practical Residency at Schumacher College.
She worked as the Seasonal Assistant for WildWise, an outdoor education organisation delivering camps which bring together bushcraft, nature awareness and creative experiences to facilitate a deeper connection to nature for the general public, schools and other organisations. She also did their pioneering ‘Call of The Wild’ course, a training programme to become leaders and ambassadors for nature.
Animals are her first love, which led her to study Veterinary Medicine and a Masters Degree in Wildlife Conservation at the University of Bristol.
Elsa grew up at Warleigh and has been working in the environmental scene for 7 years. She’s worked as environmental education lead at Kivukoni School in Kenya, coordinating a whole-school approach into ecological ways of being, and has
recently headed up the Kaya Connect Project education component – delivering holistic environmental education to 10,000 children across the Kenyan coast, along with authoring
her first book ‘Reconnecting Schools to Nature.’
In 2021, Elsa walked with two horses from John O’ Groats to Land’s End raising funds and awareness for environmental education, and she has a first class Master’s degree in Ecological Design Thinking from Schumacher College. She has recently become a lead on the Devon Sustainable Schools Network, and has a number of existing collaborations in the area.
Max is a former professional Parkour athlete and filmmaker who now focuses his time on habitat restoration biodynamics and working at Warleigh to help regenerate the land. He has a strong background in health and wellbeing, and his research looks at the intersection between spirituality and nature recovery.
Max has taught Parkour to all ages around the world, and is now enjoying the shift into environmental education with his gentle, kind and inspiring presence. He is particularly skilled in design for habitat creation and practical craftsmanship, always seeming to know the next step of any hands-on task.
A 480-acre arable and livestock farm nestled in the heart of the Tamar Valley Area Of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) in Devon. At Warleigh Barton you’re not only immersing yourself in nature, you’re supporting a family-run business truly dedicated to farming and working the land in harmony with nature.
Warleigh Barton, Tamerton Foliot, PL5 4LG
Telephone: 07969 070862
Booking and farm enquiries:
Environmental education and outreach enquiries:
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