Operating
Martins Farm
Fifteen acres at Frant, East Sussex. Established 1830. The estate holding.
HINE Estate
HINE Estate is the family holding under which Martins Farm and its buildings are owned and managed. It exists for a plain reason: to keep the land in one piece and to let each part of it find its own use, in its own time.
Portfolio
Holdings
Open
The Oast
A single-kiln oast house let to guests, sleeping four. From £220 a night.
Coming soon
The Hathaway Huts
Two shepherd’s huts, hand-built by Plankbridge (opens in a new tab) — living and sleeping — forming one private family stay in the meadow.
In planning
Cuvée Sharon Sussex Sparkling Wine
A south-facing slope, a name settled long before a single vine went in the ground, and a decision still being made carefully. Planting is in planning; nothing has been put in, and the first release is a number of years away.
The estate has commissioned a climatology and site-suitability assessment for the proposed vineyard — a technical look at this particular slope rather than a general enthusiasm for English wine. It is informing whether we plant, where exactly, on what aspect and at what scale. Specialist UK viticulture and agronomy advice exists for precisely this reason; Agrii (opens in a new tab) is one such resource in the field.
The case, and the caveats
Why the South East
Growing seasons here have warmed to the point where varieties that once struggled to ripen in southern England now do so in most years, while the long, cool ripening period that comes with a northerly latitude preserves the acidity a traditional-method sparkling wine depends on. Site does the rest: aspect and slope govern sunlight and how quickly cold air drains away on a spring night, and free-draining soils matter more than fertile ones, since vines resent wet feet and reward a little hardship.
None of which is a story of tidy progress. A warming climate is a shift in the average accompanied by more variability: earlier budburst exposes vines to late frost, warm wet summers bring disease pressure, and hail and drought are no longer English abstractions. Any planting here is a long bet made with clear eyes, which is why the assessment came before the vines.
That the category itself is serious is easier to demonstrate. Champagne Taittinger planted Domaine Evremond (opens in a new tab) in Kent — sixty hectares, and the first Champagne-house investment of its kind in the UK — and estates such as Rathfinny (opens in a new tab) on the South Downs have built the category at scale. It does not make our slope viable. It makes the question worth asking properly.
The land, and who else uses it
The noisy neighbours
Mornings here are rarely silent. Buzzards call above the fields — a pair we hear far more often than we see. Chiffchaffs announce themselves from the hedges, redstarts appear and think better of it, robins supervise anyone holding a spade, and goldfinches pass through in bright, gossiping handfuls. Woodpigeons and carrion crows provide the bass section. In summer the swifts return from Africa and scream over the yard for a few short weeks.
At the field edges, pheasants wander with comic self-importance and an occasional heron drops in, plainly of the view that the visit is a favour. Deer come through from the neighbouring parkland at first and last light, crossing on their own routes. They are visitors, not ours; the estate simply happens to lie on the way.
This is what we see and hear, written down as first-hand observation. It is not an ecological survey: we have not counted anything, and we make no claim about what nests or breeds where. What it does do is shape the plans — the orchard, the meadow cutting, hedgerow work and any future vines are all intended to be sympathetic to the wildlife already using this ground, rather than to promise outcomes we have not yet earned.
Where the wildlife is seen on the estate
The meadow — goldfinches, woodpigeons, and the cut timed late 
The lane hedges — chiffchaffs, robins and the occasional redstart 
The yard and kiln roof — buzzards overhead, swifts for a few summer weeks
Who is actually involved
Made by people who know their craft
A short and deliberately honest list. We name a maker only where they are genuinely engaged on the estate, and describe everyone else as what they are: a resource we have read, not a contractor we have hired.
Engaged on the estate
Plankbridge (opens in a new tab)
Specialist makers of traditional shepherd’s huts, hand-building the living hut and the sleeping hut that will together form The Hathaway Huts. The maker’s drawing of the living hut is the only image of the huts we hold; the huts themselves are still in planning.
Commissioned
A climatology and site-suitability assessment
Commissioned for the proposed vineyard slope: a technical look at this ground rather than a general enthusiasm for English wine.
Resources, not contractors
UK viticulture and agronomy advice
Specialist advice exists for precisely these questions; Agrii (opens in a new tab) is one such resource in the field. No engagement with Martins Farm is implied.
This list will grow as the huts, the orchard and any planting bring real craftspeople and suppliers onto the farm. Until then it stays short.
Elsewhere on the estate
Other buildings
Beyond the oast and the huts there is a quiet space awaiting its next chapter. We will write about it when there is something worth saying.
Enquiries to the estate: hello@martinsfarmestate.com
HINE Estate · Frant, East Sussex