Reserve Manager

Reserve Manager - West Berkshire

Farmer or stockperson wanted to run a 234-acre nature reserve on the Berkshire Downs - with a six-bedroom farmhouse to live in, rent-free.

• Employer: A private charitable foundation
• Location: Near Pangbourne, West Berkshire
• The job: Permanent, full time and salaried; hands-on; living on the farm is part of the role
• Salary: £50,000-£58,000 depending on experience
• Your home: Six-bedroom Victorian farmhouse with a walled garden, rent-free for as long as you hold the job
• Also: 4x4 vehicle; employer pension; paid training
• Start: Early 2027
• Closing date: Friday 15 January 2027

The farm and the house

The farm is 234 acres of chalk grassland and woodland on the edge of the North Wessex Downs, ten miles west of Reading: thirteen grazed fields, four woods, a traditional yard of brick-and-flint barns, and a six-bedroom Victorian farmhouse with a walled garden looking out over the fields. One family has farmed it for ninety years.

A private foundation is buying the farm (subject to contract) to turn it into a nature reserve. That does not mean letting it go wild and walking away. It means grazing the pastures properly with cattle and sheep so the downland flowers come back, working the woods, laying hedges, digging ponds, keeping fences, tracks and water in order, and doing it well year after year. It is farming, done for nature instead of for the market - and it needs a farmer to do it. You would be the first person employed on the land, with the backing of a foundation that is here for decades, not for a grant cycle.

The job

This is a hands-on job. You will do the work yourself, with contractors brought in only for the big jobs, and you will answer to one person at the Foundation rather than a committee. In a typical year you will:

• Look after the stock. Daily checks, moving cattle and sheep between fields, water, welfare, handling and records - a local grazier's animals at first and, if you make the case, a herd of our own.
• Drive and maintain the machinery. Tractor, topper, trailer, ATV, chainsaw, brushcutter and hand tools, kept in good order in your own workshop in the yard.
• Fence, hedge and ditch. Rebuild the stock fencing, plant and lay hedges, put in gates, handling pens and troughs.
• Work the woods. Fell and coppice, keep the deer down, open up rides and glades and protect the new growth.
• Keep the holding in order. Tracks, gates, barns and yard; safety checks, insurance and the paperwork that goes with a working farm.
• Look after the house and buildings. Decorating, repairs and improvements to the farmhouse and barns, with materials paid for by the Foundation and our contractors alongside you where the regulations require.
• Run the schemes. Take over the farm's Countryside Stewardship and SFI agreements, keep the records and put together a simple annual plan and budget, with help from our advisers.
• Be our face locally. Neighbours, the parish, people on the footpaths and, in time, school visits.

In your first few weeks, you will also walk the farm with our ecologist and help write its restoration plan, and learn on the job why each field is managed the way it is. It is outdoor work in all weathers, with early starts, weekend stock checks and most days on your own. If that is what you already do, this will feel familiar - with a house, a salary and a long-term future attached.

Who we are looking for

A practical person with a farming or land-based background: a farmer or farm worker, a stockperson, a contractor, a keeper, a farm manager's right hand. You might be running a family farm that no longer pays its way, or working on someone else's and ready for a place of your own to look after. You will not need a degree, and you will not need to know your orchids from your knapweed on day one - but you will need to want to learn, because the point of all the work is the wildlife that comes back.

Essential

• Several years' hands-on farm or land work, including responsibility for livestock.
• Confident with machinery - tractor and trailer, ATV, chainsaw, brushcutter - able to maintain it, and willing to take the certificates you do not yet hold (we pay).
• Fencing, hedging and general estate maintenance to a good standard.
• Fit for heavy physical work in all weathers, and content working alone.
• Practical common sense about safety, and the discipline to keep the paperwork that goes with it.
• Reliable and organised: able to keep stock, scheme and safety records and plan a year's work.
• A full driving licence.
• Wanting to live on the farm, with out-of-hours responsibility for stock, water and security.
• A real interest in the countryside and its wildlife, and the wish to learn how to manage land for nature.

Useful, but not required

• Experience of conservation grazing, Countryside Stewardship or SFI.
• Building, plumbing, carpentry or decorating skills.
• Cattle or sheep husbandry on your own account, and knowledge of native breeds.
• Knowledge of chalk downland.
• A land-based qualification.

What we offer

The farmhouse. A six-bedroom Victorian farmhouse of brick and flint, with a big kitchen, a walled garden and views over your own fields - rent-free for as long as you hold the job. There is room for a large family, dogs, a vegetable garden and a workshop in the yard. The village primary school is a mile away; Pangbourne, with its shops and a station to Reading and London, is a few miles. It is the kind of house a farm salary never buys, and it comes with the job.

• Security. A salary of £50,000-£58,000, reviewed annually and an employer pension - a permanent, salaried position with a foundation that is here for decades.
• The kit. A 4x4, the machinery, tools and protective equipment you need, and a workshop to keep them in.
• Training. We pay for the certificates you do not yet have, and you will learn the conservation side from our ecologist and advisers as you go.
• The house and buildings. If you can do the work, we pay for the materials - and for the trades where the job needs them.
• Relocation. A contribution to the cost of moving.
• A future. A farm restored for nature over the coming decades, with your work in every field of it.

How to apply

You do not need to write a long letter. Send us a CV, or a page on what you have done, and a short note - half a page is plenty - about the land and stock you have been responsible for and why this job and this house are right for you. Email by Friday 15 January 2027. If you would rather talk first, email the same address with your number and we will ring you.

Shortlisted candidates will be asked to walk the farm with us: the walk is the interview. A second meeting with the Foundation's principal follows. You and anyone moving with you are welcome to look round the house.

You must have the right to work in the UK. We welcome applications from everyone with the skills for the job.