Bury St Edmunds estate geared for busy Christmas tree season

Every year as December approaches, more than 4,000 trees will be plucked from its 40 acres of Christmas tree plantations. Some will grow as high as 50ft to 60ft.

These will be sold on farm and further afield while its bigger trees will head to towns such as Bury St Edmunds to provide the centrepiece for their glittering seasonal celebrations. They also head to National Trust homes, some Cambridge colleges and churches, including St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

These days the Christmas tree-buying season appears to be extending - as more householders choose to get their trees up early rather than wait until a few days before the big day, the estate says.

Complementing its tree operation is a seasonal store filled with festive decorations and gifts. The ancient, timber-framed thatched Blackthorpe Barn was rethatched about 20 years ago and turned into a store and events venue to provide a more fitting backdrop to the Christmas tree sales than its predecessor - the estate office car park.

Buying for the barn begins at trade fairs held a year in advance. It's enough work to require two or three full-timers year-round.

The plantations themselves are boosted by new saplings - generally bought from Scandivanian nurseries aged around three or four years - in a continuous process of renewal.

The 3,000 acre site, off the A14, is owned by George Agnew. It's been in the family since 1904. It is managed by Simon Eddell.

"We have built a business up over many years which provides use with a relatively stable income stream," says Simon. With the shop, the site has become a "one-stop shop" for Christmas, he explains.

Around 60 years ago, the Agnews decided to diversify into Christmas trees - a useful sideline for many farmers and one which helps to smooth out the many peaks and troughs of their main food-growing operations.

Aside from the Christmas trees, the estate grows rye for Ryvita on its lighter land, wheat, barley for malting, sugar beet and oilseed rape.

None of the land is irrigated. This makes decisions about what to grow more challenging for Simon and his team - especially given prolonged heatwaves such as the one it endured this year.

But although yields were down this year they were better than expected - and prices were good. Meanwhile, they are doing what they can to improve the land - including having grazing stock onto cover crops to enrich the soils.

Now in his mid-30s, Simon joined the operation more than 11 years ago - originally as its farm manager. Around a year and a half or so ago, he was elevated to his current role. Overall, around 12 people are employed full-time there - but there are seasonal highs. Last week, 35 people were on the payroll across the estate.

"It's a very varied estate," he explains. "The bulk of it is arable farmland which we are farming."

There is also lots of forestry and woodland - and a large amount of residential property - to manage.  The ultimate aim, he says, is to improve biodiversity and conservation on the estate.

The Christmas tree operation provides a useful way to help achieve that. Unlike other tree-based sidelines it has a relatively quick turnaround. Oaks take hundreds of years to grow, and even timber conifers require decades. Christmas trees, by contrast, will take around seven or eight years - although their entire lifespan is closer to 10 to 12 years for a six or seven foot tree.

They arrive as bare-root stock and are planted around three to four feet apart. The trees grow at a rate of around a foot a year - and will be harvested at different stages to suit different customers. 

The estate grows both Nordmann fir and Norway spruce. The most popular of these on the estate is the Nordmann because it won't drop its needles as much as the Norway spruce, says Simon. This suits a tendency in recent years for householders to keep their trees and decorations up for a longer period, he explains.

"The Norway spruce are the more traditional Christmas trees but they are notorious for losing their needles," he explains. "A lot of people are looking to celebrate Christmas for a lot longer time - and decorating the house and keeping them for longer. A lot of people will have their tree up for a month."

In order to keep their trees in good health they do need to look after them - as they would cut flowers, he advises. Keeping them watered and away from heat sources helps, as does cutting off the bottom of the trunk when they arrive home.

"It's a living, breathing product," he says. And while it's growing it's sequestering carbon and creating habitat for wildlife, he adds, making it more environmentally-friendly than an artificial alternative.

"It's a nice time of year because there's so much happening and there's a lot of engagement with the public which is quite fun," he adds. "It's lovely to see families come and pick their trees - especially when you have been growing it for a number of years."