How a traditional estate is helping residents and businesses create their own sustainable community in coast and country villages

The most modern history, if starting at 1743 it can be so-called, goes back to the current resident family and owner, The Marquis & Marchioness of Normanby.

The Mulgrave Estate is traditional and employs 37 local people.

It owns and manages a mix of agricultural, residential and commercial property across the village of Lythe (where the house is), Sandsend, Goldsborough, East and West Barnby, Ugthorpe, Mickleby, Runswick Bay, Egton, Grosmont, Goathland and Glaisdale.

They are all villages, hamlets, and while Sandsend and its spectacular coastline is recognisable to the hundreds and thousands of visitors it receives each year, Goldsborough, for example, is a smattering of farms and farm houses that you would have to know were there.

Unless you know about the local pub though – the Fox and Hounds is a delight and is a proper country pub, not one trying to be.

Lythe itself, isn’t the most populated village you will ever come across.

The 2011 census recorded a population of 377 – a reduction on the figure of 465 in 2001.

That figure may well be different now and a recent estimate by Scarborough Borough Council was that the percentage of second and holiday home ownership for the parish of Lythe and Sandsend was 37 per cent.

However, while the Mulgrave Estate is up there with your perception of a country estate from anywhere between the Georgian, Victorian, Edwardian and post war eras – it’s making a modern comeback and is passionate about creating a sustainable and vibrant community for the local community of Lythe and beyond and to attract new people to the area who want to stay and make a lifestyle there.

Robert Childerhouse is the Estate Director and is driving forward a ten year strategy, agreed by a management board, to modernise and refresh the estate’s property and practices.

He is six years in and much of this work has been about putting the Mulgrave Estate at the heart of the community.

The area under the Estate has, as well as 45 tenant farmers, private and commercial businesses running from its properties. They include local pubs, two village shops, a hotel, an art studio, a camp site, outdoor education and recreation centre, a distillery, cafe, printer, and one of the oldest and most prestigious piano makers which has a Royal warrant.

The businesses serve each other in that campers go to the pub, they go to the local shop and will use the cafe. It keeps the money in Lythe, it keeps the staff there and they in turn spend locally – almost creating a circular economy.

"There is a nice story in all of that”, explains Mr Childerhouse who himself lives within the estate parameters after re-location from Norfolk to take the job with his family six years ago.

"It is a lifestyle, you don’t become a resident agent to have a 9 to 5. People knock on the door at 7.30am on a Sunday, they know where you live. You go to the shop or the pub and bump into tenants.”

But, he says, as we chat through the Autumn sunshine on a Monday morning, “the estate needed to change, it was 15 to 20 years behind”.

A programme of renovation, revamp and revitalise is in full swing.

The Stiddy pub had opened and closed with the wind direction previously and care has been taken to appoint managers who want to make it successful. Ask any local for a Sunday lunch recommendation and this place pops up along with a different event for each night of the week.

The shop had been closed for some time prior to being re-opened. It is run by volunteers and stocks bakery and meat produce from the hugely popular Whitby bakery family, Botham’s and local butcher Radford’s.

The distillery is a relatively new addition and a year ago a nursery, Roseville Childcare, opened in an estate property with 60 places for local children. It has created 14 jobs in the locality too.

It could be argued that the residential property is where the some of the biggest differences are being made to address local need and create a lasting community.

Mulgrave has 13 holiday cottages which it runs across its estate, it is simple business sense to do so in what is one of the most popular destinations in the country.

However, the work it is doing to address a wider issue is tangible.

Prior to Mr Childerhouse’s arrival several properties had been left empty for decades. Maybe the tenant farmer died, retired, or moved on but in some cases nothing happened next and in some cases tenants are in unsuitable properties that no longer match their needs.

Those abandoned houses are being renovated, the roof repair for just one of these is £100,000 giving some idea of the financial investment being made. When completed, it will be offered to tenants looking to farm, looking for a rural lifestyle or wanting to create their own business from home.

One tenant, following the death of her farmer husband was rattling around in a four bedroomed farmhouse by herself and was offered a swap to one of two new almshouse type bungalows which have just been built.

The lady, who volunteers three days a week in the afore-mentioned village shop, gladly accepted.

Two defunct tin buildings are set to be demolished and two houses built on the footprint.

Houses are leased on longer term contracts with a local connection required. They are strictly not let as second homes.

On the other side of the road from the winding driveway to the main house and gardens (which are private save for being opened six times a year at the permission of Lord Normanby for the benefit of local charities) there is a village fire station.

It is operated by on-call volunteers who have to live within a mile or can be there in five minutes.

Several estate workers are part of the crew having been granted permission to drop their jobs should a call come in, with a recent one being to estate land itself after a helium balloon landed on power cables, and set alight causing a wildfire across farmland with flames visible for miles around.

The vision is to create a self sustainable estate for business and people and retain Lythe’s identity and community.

Mr Childerhouse added: “The estate has always had traditional values but it needed to modernise. It is a really nice place to work, there is endless opportunity, and, with it challenges.

"There are lots of places where we can add value – tourism, jobs for local people and houses for local people. It is a circle and the estate is in the middle. Lord and Lady Normanby live in London but this will always be home to them.”