Sir Julian Rose and his daughter, Miriam Rose, of the Hardwick Estate – England’s first community-owned estate – joined our CEO, Patrick Holden, on the SFT Podcast.
Julian Rose was one of the pioneers of organic farming in the UK. In the late 1960s, Julian inherited ownership of the Hardwick Estate and by 1975 the 375-acre farmland had been converted to organic status. 40 years later, the Rose family have made the decision to transfer ownership of the Estate to the local community, seeking to move away from a history of private aristocratic ownership.
Following closely in her father’s footsteps, Miriam says she identified as a ’natural environmentalist’ from a very young age having grown up on the farm, and has been a fierce advocate ever since – including spending eight days incarcerated in Iceland after protesting the country’s aluminium industry’s impact on the rivers. Nowadays, Miriam sits on the board of Trustees of the Hardwick Estate, overseeing its direction, which is otherwise managed by the Hardwick community.
In this episode, Julian and Miriam go into more detail about how this community-owned model works, as well as the risks involved with this approach, and they discuss whether or not this model could be scaled. They also talk about the complex feelings they have towards land-ownership and the inheritance of wealth.
Find out more about the Hardwick Estate here.
This conversation was recorded in October 2025. Featured image courtesy of www.julianrose.info/.
Timestamps
0:00: Welcome Julian and Miriam!
01:04: The history of the Hardwick Estate and how the Julian came to inherit the Estate
9:05: Patrick and Julian’s involvement in the early organic movement – including the beginnings of the UK’s organic food standards
12:15: Miriam’s early beginnings as an environmentalist and her role at Hardwick
15:12: Becoming England’s first community-owned estate
22:35: How does the community ownership model work?
24:46: What are the risks involved with this approach?
30:02: 50 years of organic at the Hardwick Estate
32:58: Can this community-owned model be scaled?
33:59: The complexities of inheriting land and wealth
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