Orchard and meadow
Old fruit trees, long grass and wildflowers, left with enough room for the seasons to do their work. Beehives are planned for the meadow; there is no estate honey yet.
The estate
Fifteen acres above Frant
Martins Farm has stood on this ridge since 1830: a working farmyard turned family estate, with the orchard, the meadow and the Weald beyond the gate.
The estate
A farmyard, and the land around it
The place
Set in the High Weald at Frant in East Sussex, a short drive south of Royal Tunbridge Wells. The farmhouse, the old barn, the cow byre and a single-kiln oast stand gathered around the yard, still carrying the shape of the farm they once served. Beyond them lie the orchard, the meadow and long views over the Weald.
It is both a family home and a small country estate in the making, held under HINE Estate. Guests stay in The Oast; the rest of the land is part of the stay. The barn and cow byre are a quiet space awaiting their next chapter.
In parts
The land, in parts
Trees and deer
The fifteen-acre estate is enclosed and yours to walk while you stay. The Oast has its own private, fully enclosed garden; outside it, dogs should remain on a lead because deer and other wildlife can be present in the fields. The neighbouring parkland is private.
The vineyard, planned
A small English vineyard is proposed for the estate's south-facing ground. Nothing is planted and no wine exists — it sits with the other plans, not the promises.
On the estate
Buildings and plans
The Oast is the one building given over to guests: a converted single-kiln oast house sleeping four, dog friendly, bookable now. The Hathaway Huts, two Plankbridge shepherd's huts forming a single private family stay, are in planning for the meadow beyond the second tree line and are not bookable.
Everything else here is either being restored or being thought about slowly. We would rather say what is planned than imply it is finished.
In winter
The same fifteen acres, under snow
The estate is not a summer-only proposition. Snow comes rarely enough in the Weald to be an event, and when it does the yard, the trees and the long view all change register for a few days.
Wild Martins Farm
The noisy neighbours
Buzzards over the fields, chiffchaffs in the hedges, woodpigeons and crows on bass, and swifts back from Africa each summer. Deer cross through from the neighbouring parkland at first light, and the dawn chorus is gloriously noisy.
Field guide
What to look and listen for
Seen and heard at Martins Farm
Recorded here by the people who live on the estate.
- BuzzardButeo buteo
- All yearBroad-winged and unhurried over the fields, often circling on a warm afternoon. Listen for the thin mewing call before you find the bird.
- SwiftApus apus
- May to AugustBack from Africa for the short summer, screaming low over the yard on clear evenings. Gone again before the apples are ready.
- RobinErithacus rubecula
- All yearThe bird that supervises any digging. Sings through the winter, which is why the garden is rarely completely silent.
- Blue tit and great titCyanistes caeruleus, Parus major
- All yearConstant in the hedges and the old apple trees. The great tit's two-note song is one of the first sounds of the year to change.
- WrenTroglodytes troglodytes
- All yearTiny, brown, and far louder than it has any right to be. Usually heard from deep inside a hedge rather than seen.
- Carrion crowCorvus corone
- All yearOn the field edges and the barn roof, in pairs. The estate's most reliable commentary.
- Deer
- All year, best at first lightCrossing in from the neighbouring parkland at dawn and again at dusk. Stand still at the field gate and wait rather than walk towards them.
Wider High Weald
Characteristic of this landscape rather than recorded on the farm — worth knowing if you are walking further afield.
- Tawny owlStrix aluco
- All year, loudest autumn and winterA woodland bird of the wider Weald. The call-and-answer between two birds is what people mistake for one owl.
- NightingaleLuscinia megarhynchos
- April to JuneThe South East holds a large share of the British breeding population, in scrub and coppice. A reason to walk a Weald reserve at dusk in May.
- Fallow deerDama dama
- All year, rut in OctoberLong established in the parkland estates of this landscape. Autumn is when they are heard rather than seen.
Families
A little more room to be children
Children have the run of a different kind of landscape here: meadow paths, old apple trees, muddy boots and deer appearing at the field edge in the early morning. There is space to explore, pause and invent the day rather than have every hour arranged.
The Oast sleeps up to four. Frant, Tunbridge Wells and the wider High Weald put walks, gardens, castles, pubs and rainy-day rescue plans within easy reach.
The family
One family, two hemispheres
Martins Farm is home to Ali, Sharon, Eddie and Winston. Ali is English; Sharon grew up in Beaufort, Victoria; Eddie belongs comfortably to both worlds. The farm brings those threads together: Sussex brick and Australian ease, an AGA in the kitchen and a welcome that is warm without standing on ceremony.
We see ourselves as custodians rather than owners of a finished thing. The work is gradual: repairing buildings, planting for the future, making space for wildlife and opening parts of the estate to guests without turning the whole place into a hotel.
“We want Martins Farm to feel cared for, not curated: somewhere with a history behind it and a reason to return.”
A vignette
The Morgan
Parked in the barn is a 1980 Morgan 4/4 four-seater, recently returned to British Racing Green. Built around an ash frame and a stubbornly traditional idea of motoring, it feels entirely at home among the old farm buildings.
Its colour became the estate's green: on the website, the signs and the things still to come. The Morgan emerges on dry days, preferably when the road is empty and nobody is in a hurry.
A moving glimpse
The Morgan, filmed
A short film from the estate's own Instagram: the 4/4 out of the barn on a dry afternoon. Nothing loads until you press play.
No sound until you play it
Come and walk it
Fifteen acres, one oast house and one golden retriever with strong views on hosting.