![]() ![]() “In reality it was an economic decision,” Isabella says. What happened next has thwarted the early critics and astounded even those who predicted success. This cleared Knepp’s debts and enabled them to start the then highly controversial process of “rewilding” – or “handing it back to nature”. Efforts in the next decade to intensify arable and dairy failed, and in 2000 the couple took the momentous decision to sell the dairy herds and machinery. When in 1987 Charlie Burrell inherited the estate it was already loss-making. Brighton and Worthing lie to the south, Gatwick Airport to the north, and the four-lane A24 roars alongside. ![]() Knepp, a 3,500-acre ancestral estate in West Sussex, is not in a remote corner of Britain. What’s sad is that many of them had to drive, and drive so far.” People were coming from all over in order to feel reinvigorated and recharged. ![]() “There’s a desperate need for people to connect with nature in times of stress, particularly if you’ve been living in the city or in a flat. And then suddenly lockdown restrictions were lifted, and in the three months after that we had tens of thousands of visitors. “It was sunny and still, there were no aircraft overhead, and the birdsong was unbelievable. “It was an amazing spring,” says Isabella Tree. Of the many pressing issues that the 2020 Covid pandemic has brought to the surface, our connection with nature – and the precarious state of the natural world – is high on the list. ![]()
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