After four years as the Mary Roxburghe Trust, we are changing our name to the West Horsley Place Trust.  This change, led by Bamber Gascoigne, recognises that in future our identity will revolve around West Horsley Place, and that the Duchess will be best remembered in the future through the stories and interpretation of the house and garden that we are building up, including her own involvement and life here.  We also plan to remember her in the naming and design of one area of the garden which she loved: the rose parterre.  The West Horsley Place Trust name will come into existence from March 1^st 2020.

While building work proceeds apace at Place Farm we are also turning our attention to the estate.  We are holding discussions with the Surrey Wildlife Trust and the Woodland Trust about the development of plans for long-term sustainability, including woodland creation and management and hedge planting, measures for flood mitigation by the management of drainage flows, and the creation of biomass through tree planting for future energy generation.

We are planning for the installation of a biomass heating plant, to replace oil, during the next 12 months.  This major step towards an ambition for net zero carbon on the estate will see almost all our buildings heated by a renewable source, wood pellets.  Eventually, the house, farm cottages, stableblock and the buildings at Place Farm will all be heated from this source.