21. Farming in Monkton

Of the farms that are within our Parish boundaries, only Monkton Court Farm, whose farm covers most of the land to the west of the Parish, still operate with the owner still having a direct input into what is grown on its land. Docker Hill Farm, which along with Monkton Court, farm most of the marsh ground to the south of the Parish, is farmed by Wilkinson’s of Chislet Court Farm. The land each side of Millers Lane, Willetts Hill and to the north of Canterbury Road and the A299 is farmed by Redsell Ltd which is based in Faversham. St Nicholas Court Farm now own and run Baxter’s at Walters Hall Farm to the east of the Parish.

In the last three years of my time on Sheriffs Court Farm, when I retired at the end of 2018, most of the field work was being done by contractors. Although being about 240 hectares in size may seem a fair size, when only growing combinable crops and maize it is relatively small in today’s farming world. I was obviously not going to be replaced. Most of our machinery was very old and small by today’s standard. Applying fertilizer and a few weeks cultivating after harvest was about most of my work out in the fields. The biggest of our three barns was converted into an industrial unit in 2016. With a small section of the concrete floor relaid and roller doors fitted, it did not need much to convert it.

With the large amount of wheat cut each day, the contractors combine could cut 30 hectares a day, our entire wheat crop could be cut within a week. The two barns we had left, although they had under floor drying, were too small to hold and dry all of this grain and 50% of the harvest was sent to the huge grain store at Wingham as soon as it was cut.

The year following my retirement St Nicholas Court Farm took over all of the farming on Sheriffs Court Farm. All the harvested crops are taken directly to their farm at St Nicholas. The remaining two barns were converted into industrial units.

Terry Marsh

Originally published in the Monkton News (May 2026).