Benger Trails
Lake Farm

Lake Farm is about 400 metres south of the main road.

According to the Victoria County History, 'the east—west range of Lake Farm was built in the 17th century or earlier'. It is a Grade II Listed Building.

The Electoral Registers show that Lake Farm was home to William Richard Arthur Pole Tylney Long, Viscount Wellesley, from 1840 to 1843; he was heir to the Draycot Estate and fortune. Subsequently, the Electoral Registers from 1846 to 1857 show that he was resident at ‘Lake or Home Farm’. This may indicate that Lake Farm was also known as Home Farm at this time, or it may possibly indicate that Viscount Wellesley used both locations as his residence.

By the time he inherited and became 5th Earl Mornington in 1857 the Estate finances were in a bit of a mess and the fortune was very much depleted. He never married, and died 6 years later, in 1863, leaving Draycot to his cousin, Lord Cowley.

The farm was Lot 4 in the 1920 Auction; it was initially withdrawn from the Auction but sold after it was put up for sale again in 1923.

The photographs include views taken in the 1990s of Lake Farm and the Lake Farm Barn. Some of the farmland is now used for a 'solar farm', which can be seen from the bridleway between Gate Court and Chissell Brook.