A Profile of Nigel Draffen

THE Angmering Park Estate Office is tucked away in its own small oasis, down a drive just off the busy Crossbush junction. Nigel’s office is in an impressive light and airy timbered barn which was transported from elsewhere on the estate and rebuilt here. It is a most enviable working environment.

Nigel is the resident Managing Agent of the Angmering Park Estate, which one would imagine to be a more than full-time job, but he does contrive time to play real tennis at Petworth. He is approaching retirement after a fulfilling twelve years in this particular job. The story of how he arrived at this final point in his career is a fascinating one. He was born in Kenya, where his family farmed 1000 acres, and describes his upbringing as ‘unique, with loving parents who gave their three children freedom to roam and explore an untamed countryside with fellow Kenyans’. The Kenyans’ bushcraft skills made a lasting impression on Nigel and helped to nurture a deep respect for the natural world. At that time the British and Kenyans lived together in harmony and respected each other’s cultures. The family’s early living conditions were primitive in some respects but this was of no account beside the wonderful experience of ‘being brought up amongst wild animals, racehorses and old Land Rovers’.

His ‘rather wild and feral childhood’ was balanced by a ‘very British education’, a Kenya prep school at eight, with Latin and Greek, followed by Malvern College, then Cambridge, where he read sport and Land Economy

His ‘rather wild and feral childhood’ was balanced by a ‘very British education’, a Kenya prep school at eight, with Latin and Greek, followed by Malvern College, then Cambridge, where he read sport and Land Economy – in that order – gaining Blues in hockey and rackets. I asked if he had found this country grey and dreary after the heat and colour of Africa but he replied that he and his family had always regarded England as home and relished the changing seasons. He felt that his ‘idyllic and rounded upbringing’, while witnessing and learning from the extremes of abject poverty and privilege in a rapidly developing nation, was a sound and instructive basis from which to start earning his own living as a young Land Agent on the bottom rung at Cluttons.

Consulting Wikipedia I discovered that Nigel had also played first-class cricket for Cambridge University, about which he was modest, not to say dismissive, but it is nonetheless an achievement to be recognised.

His first ten years were spent learning the ropes of looking after farms and estates in East Anglia, but one day in 1983 he received a call from Nigel Clutton (later to marry Lady Sarah, Duke Bernard’s daughter) asking if he would like to re-locate south of the Thames and help him manage the Norfolk Estate. He was interviewed by Duchess Lavinia, the main topic of conversation being horses and dogs. Having been offered the job and accepted, his first task was to run a children’s party on the lawns of Park House. Whilst amused but not convinced that this was part of a Land Agent’s role, he nevertheless made sure that his own two daughters did not beat Lady Jane’s two daughters, Clare and Mary. How very diplomatic- this surely was an essential ingredient of the job!

At that stage, in the early ‘80’s, the Norfolk Estate was a single entity of 15,000 acres and for the next seven years Nigel enjoyed being part of the fascinating and complex process of dividing the Estate between Duke Bernard’s four daughters and the present Duke’s family, creating the Angmering Park and Norfolk Estates.

In 1990 he was invited to join the Goodwood Estate but declined the offer as he was ‘blissfully happy in Arundel’ and it also meant changing firms. A few months later however, the Duke rang asking him to reconsider his decision if he could remain as a partner in Cluttons. He agreed, saying a sad farewell to Arundel and taking the plunge to be immersed in the deep end of managing a captivating and famous Estate. Thus began an exciting twenty years for Nigel. It was the beginning of an era of massive change as Goodwood left behind its reputation as an international dressage venue and embraced the area of fast-moving motorsport, where the Festival of Speed and Revival meetings emerged under the inspirational leadership of Lord March.

Nigel admits that he had no previous experience of motorsport, but as there was no-one else to do the job, the Property Department was asked to manage the first Festival of Speed. He describes it as ‘organised chaos’ involving the whole Estate and generating a startling and unexpected 20,000 spectators and a traffic jam from Goodwood to Petworth, heralding the beginning of an exciting new chapter. The Festival of Speed soon blossomed into an international event, closely followed by the Revival meeting at the Motor Circuit, for which planning permission had to be obtained for five days of unsilenced racing of historic cars. For Nigel it was a huge privilege to be involved in the exponential growth of the Estate with its core values of organic farming, forestry and property management. However, in his own words, ‘After 20 years and having reached the age of 60 a younger better-looking model was required’. ‘As luck would have it’ the then Manager of the Angmering Park Estate was offered the opportunity of managing the Burleigh Estate and Nigel, having turned down the tempting offer of managing a 60,000 acre rhino sanctuary back in Kenya, received a call from Lady Sarah asking him to ‘come back home’ to Arundel. He describes this as ‘an offer from heaven which I could not refuse’.

When he walked back into the Angmering Estate Office after twenty years of absence he was greeted by the same team of staff, such was their loyalty to the family. With the support of this strong team his objective was to put in place a really solid infrastructure for the benefit of future generations. With the backing of the Trustees, the Estate has been able to buy back former estate land, improve the housing stock of 80 properties, equip the 2,800 acre farm with modern grain storage, create a new farm centre for one of the tenant farmers, convert a covered yard into a brewery and an old granary into a bunk house for hikers and bikers – an impressive list by any standards!

Whilst all this was going on Lady Anne’s former horse- racing business had morphed into a successful equine recuperation centre under Graham May’s skilful management, and Nigel Clutton had developed the Estate’s sporting interest into a shoot whose reputation for quality rather than quantity is among the best in the country.

Nigel informed me that landowners and farmers are about to enter the biggest change since the Industrial Revolution, managing climate change and preserving the red-listed species which are declining at the shocking rate of a million a year. It is certainly a pivotal moment for the planet but the Estate is playing its part through many years of regenerative farming under Dominic Gardner’s stewardship. Furthermore, thanks to the Duke’s passion for saving the English Grey Partridge from extinction, re-landscaping and habitat creation over a further 1,000 acres is about to happen.

And so to the future for Nigel. He describes his final 12 years at Angmering as a truly happy ending to a wonderfully fulfilling and diverse career, saying, ‘I have only had to touch the tiller from time to time thanks to a stellar estate team’. He wishes every possible good fortune to his successor Alastair Deighton, under a Savills umbrella, and will confidently hand over the reins on 1st January when he retires to the ‘back benches’ as a Trustee. Alastair, having managed the Firle Estate, has been chosen to manage both the Norfolk and Angmering Park Estates as two separate businesses, but with the long-term objective of bringing both Estates back together as a single entity of 14,000 acres, which was the wish of Duke Bernard’s four daughters. Alastair will spend time in both offices each day and each Estate will retain its own board of Trustees. The wheel of history appears to have come full circle, but doubtless under a new guiding hand there will be changes in accordance with the times we live in.

Apart from wishing he were 21 again, Nigel looks forward to retirement and seeing more of his grandchildren. An adventurous trek with elephants in the Namibian Desert with his greatest friends will begin this period of his life with a flying start, followed doubtless by a variety of activities and involvements in different areas. We wish him a very happy and peaceful retirement though as he is essentially a man of action, perhaps the latter is not such an appropriate sentiment!