Abstract/Summary

This thesis examines the survival of a great agricultural estate through the first decades of the twentieth century, a period when many great estates suffered financial decline; many disappeared completely while others downsized or diversified into new business areas. The thesis considers the unique position of the Wellington estate as a Parliamentary Trust with an additional layer of governance rarely seen, and which the owners were unwilling to challenge. The Trust protected and assisted the estate in some respects but also prohibited some activities which other estates took for granted. With the estate owner frequently absent, the Land Agent established effective ways of working with other professionals in meeting the needs of the oversight bodies, and developed strategies that enabled the estate to balance its books. In the wake of the Great War, the heir to the estate intended taking a greater interest in its workings and to develop it as a shooting estate, causing friction with the Agent. Despite abandoning some key projects as a consequence of the heir’s interventions, the Land Agent managed the estate without requiring additional funding from the Duke, sustaining its Home Farm through a programme of diversification. After the death of the 4th Duke, the Land Agent strove to implement economies and ensure tenants paid rent to enable the new Duke to pay death duties. This professional Land Agent was the key force in managing the estate effectively, a powerful and authoritative figure and, through the Land Agents’ Society, also at a national level. Although the 4th Duke demonstrated confidence in his Land Agent’s management of his estate, ultimately it was his decision as to how the property should be utilised. The Land Agent was successful in meeting the Duke’s needs, handing over the estate intact and debt free to his successor in 1936.