Higham Estate sits within one of the most admired and loved landscapes in the world. At 1,170 acres near Bassenthwaite Lake, it forms a significant part of the northern Lake District National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The future looked bleak for this privately managed estate which had been in the hands of a single family for more than 100 years, as it faced being broken up and sold off as individual parcels of land.

Crosby Granger Architects were delighted to be chosen by the new owners of Higham Estate to help forge a sustainable future for this remarkable corner of the Lake District.

We relished the opportunity to create a vision that would preserve this exceptional landscape and heritage, enhance the environment, ensure economic viability, and bring benefits for local people, businesses, visitors and the Lake District National Park.
Our Whole Estate Plan (WEP) sets out a detailed, long-term strategy for the estate over the next 20-plus years. Endorsed by the Lake District National Park Authority on 10 June 2025, it is only the second WEP to be endorsed in Cumbria.

A holistic vision for the future

The WEP was created in partnership with the Lake District National Park Authority and born out of a process of dovetailing the estate’s vision with the park’s own strategic objectives. The approach is inherently holistic, recognising that every element of the estate is interconnected: its land, heritage, biodiversity, economy and community.

One of the greatest challenges, and opportunities, is finding the balance between the estate’s need to generate income and the National Park’s duty to safeguard the landscape. The two might appear to have contradictory pressures or pull in different directions, but through the Whole Estate Plan we have shown how they can strengthen each other and achieve a thriving, financially sustainable estate that actively enhances the landscape and contributes to the wider aims of the park.

At its heart, the WEP balances three ‘pillars’ of sustainable estate management: economic viability, community engagement and environmental stewardship.

To deliver on these principles, we established four core visions to guide the estate for the next 20 years:

Rejuvenate the estate into an inspirational model of a sustainable rural enterprise
Preserve and enhance the spectacular landscape, wildlife and cultural heritage
Foster a prosperous local economy
Create a world-class visitor experience with educational and recreational opportunities

To achieve this, we identified strengths, challenges and opportunities across six asset groups: context and setting, land use and economics, community and cultural, habitats and biodiversity, historic environment and travel and tourism. From these, we created an action plan with specific proposals and timelines to shape the estate’s development.

At Higham, for example, biodiversity uplift is planned across the whole estate – from adopting advanced wildflower seed mixes that benefit butterflies and bees while retaining all existing farming operations, to creating ten-metre buffer zones along the River Derwent and new otter holts.

A WEP involves continuously balancing the requirements and hopes of all parties, a process with which the Crosby Granger Architects team is highly experienced. Estate owners have their wish lists and red lines, and we work to understand what an owner truly values about their estate and what they wish to protect.

At Higham, we adopted a zoned approach rather than proposing footpaths throughout the estate, preserving the peacefulness of certain areas such as the riverbanks while offering more accessible public areas with new footpaths and cycleways.

Our role is to guide the owner towards a plan that is as productive, sustainable and inclusive as possible. This is a constant balancing act, achieved through open dialogue between our team, the owner and the National Park Authority.

One often under-recognised skill of architects is our ability to liaise, negotiate and collaborate with diverse groups of people. With a WEP, this occurs on a large and complex scale.

For Higham, we liaised with numerous groups and individuals, taking members of the National Park’s Strategy and Vision Committee on a guided tour of the estate to experience it first-hand.

We carried out a community consultation and met with the local parish council to address concerns and assure local people that certain hearsay was baseless. We were able to explain how the new owner had saved the estate from being broken up and to demonstrate the public benefits such as new footpaths.

The parish council raised concerns about parking around the north end of Bassenthwaite Lake, and we were able to incorporate a proposal for additional parking within the estate development to help alleviate the issue. This illustrates the power of the holistic approach: delivering benefits to all parties and unlocking possibilities that might otherwise remain beyond reach.

In another example, the LDNPA has developed an Active Travel Network Plan identifying new walking, cycling and wheelchair-friendly routes across the National Park. The development of the Bassenthwaite Cycleway from Keswick to Cockermouth has been identified as a priority, and we were able to support this project by offering to complete a significant portion of the route along the edge of the estate.

We also strengthened community connections by proposing new access routes through the estate linking local businesses such as The Lakes Distillery, Bassenthwaite Lake Station Café and Higham Hall – increasing visitor potential and supporting the local economy.

While collaboration ensures that development and conservation objectives are balanced, it is equally important to capture and preserve the human stories and cultural heritage that give the estate its unique identity.

In the hands of experts

Creating a WEP requires an in-depth understanding of an estate in all its intricacies. We worked with a trusted network of professionals, drawing on specialist expertise as required.

Collaborators included Fisher German land agents, The Hoy Consultancy, known for its work with Blenheim Palace, planning consultants Stephenson Halliday, local land agents PFK and Galbraith land agents for their woodland management expertise. We also brought in ecological consultants Envirotech, a company we have worked with on a number of projects, to carry out a high-level environmental assessment of the whole estate.

As a heritage specialist practice with three Lethaby Scholars, Crosby Granger Architects also carried out a level 1 historical survey of the old barns on the estate. Detailed and expert asset analysis is essential to ensure that significant heritage buildings are never compromised, as has happened elsewhere.

Getting under the skin of every element is at the core of how we work at Crosby Granger Architects. We bring not only our passion and expertise but also the collective strength of the team behind us in the form of our consultants and the long-standing relationships we have with them.

Higham Estate’s new owner is clear about his aim: it will be “a legacy to be left for the benefit of others in the years ahead”. Supported by the Whole Estate Plan, led by our team at Crosby Granger Architects, Higham’s future is assured for at least another hundred years.