About Manor Farm

The Matthews Family have been farming in Surrey since 1935 when they moved here from a dairy farm in Kent. At that time the family had one landlord and a tenancy of 385 acres.

Fred Matthews and his son Laurence are partners in the business. 

Laurence and Paula Matthews have 3 sons who all show an interest in farming.

Laurence began a major restructuring of the farm business in 1989, rationalising the farm and updating equipment.

The farm now extends to 3,000 acres of owned and tenanted land with ten landlords and five employees. Laurence is Chairman of the National Farmers Union (NFU) Combinable Crops Board, this board of working farmers advises on arable policy and lobbies the Government and the EU. He is on the council of the Surrey Agricultural Society and is a steward at ploughing matches and the Surrey County Show. Laurence is a founding member of Surrey Quality Producers Group.

Paula trained in Countryside Recreation, working as a countryside ranger for a local authority, National Trust warden, District Rights of Way Officer and then Senior Rights of Way Officer. For ten years Paula was a director of Countryside Venture a National charity which provided bursaries for training courses in practical rural skills.

Having photographed farming activities at Manor Farm for the past few years, Paula used her pictures to create this website, design a farm leaflet, Landscape History information board and other interpretive material for the farm.

In 2007 Paula established a framework for educational visits, having achieved full accreditation for Manor Farm to host school visits through Countryside Educational Visits Accreditation Scheme (CEVAS).  Paula organises educational schools visits to Manor Farm for local and inner city schools, with hundreds of children visiting the busy working farm.

Manor Farm has been awarded the Quality badge by the Council for Learning Outside the Classroom and has been shortlisted for the Bayer & FACE Biodiversity Award 2010.

Contact us to buy delicious, naturally reared Manor Farm Belted Galloway beef direct from the farm.