History

Lower Kingcombe was once a thriving community based on farming, orchards and wood production. The Census of 1881 recorded 46 people residing in five cottages, now there are less than six. Poorer residents lived in small houses with large plots of land for growing vegetables, keeping poultry and perhaps a pig.

The 600 acre estate was owned by the Earl of Sandwich until it was sold on 26 September 1917. The tenant farmer, John Wallbridge, purchased Lower Kingcombe Farm and maintained it the way it had always been managed. On his death in 1939 the estate passed to his son Arthur, who continued to run it in the same way, refuting the use of chemicals, pesticides and mechanised practices. Conservationists began to recognise that this conservative land management preserved habitats and wildlife that have long-since vanished across much of Britain.

A year after Arthur’s death in 1987, the farm was bought by a company which divided it into lots and sold it off. This prompted a nationwide campaign to save this unique site. The Dorset Wildlife Trust was successful in all its bids and purchased 300 acres, now openly accessible and known as the Kingcombe Meadows Nature Reserve. This was hailed as a victory for the conservation movement.

At the same auction Nigel Spring purchased 4.5 acres of the estate comprising the old farm buildings and surrounding fields in order to realise his dream of developing and running a successful environmental studies centre. Nigel’s passion for wildlife is responsible for kick-starting the careers of many of today’s wildlife professionals.

The Kingcombe Trust was established to oversee the activities of the studies centre. Pauline Lowry Directed the Centre a little while after Nigel Spring’s departure. She continued in Nigel’s footsteps of providing quality courses in a relaxed and friendly atmosphere until she departed in June 2009.