BUILDING blocks are being put in place for a £2 million long-term plan to restore the historically important Driver Farm estate on Exmoor.

The 800-acre hill farm on The Chains to the west of Simonsbath is considered ‘highly significant’ to the heritage of the moor.

Exmoor National Park Authority (ENPA) has been awarded three external grants in the past 12 months to help it achieve its goals for Driver.

A £90,000 historic buildings grant from the Farming in Protected Landscapes programme allows repairs to one of the main ranges of the traditional stone farm buildings built in 1847, which should be completed next March.

An aerial view of Driver Farm, on Exmoor. PHOTO: ENPA.
An aerial view of Driver Farm, on Exmoor. PHOTO: ENPA. ( )

The National Lottery Heritage Fund gave £1.25 million for a four-year programme called ‘Exmoor Pioneers’, which was match-funded with the Cynthia Hadley legacy via ENPA’s CareMoor for Exmoor and from BMW Recharge in Nature.

It covers work on and around the old Royal Forest of Exmoor with a focus on nature, heritage, engagement, and skills, the delivery of which will begin in the New Year.

The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) Landscape Recovery Scheme also gave about £700,000 for two years of developing the authority’s ideas for a 20-year land management scheme focused on Driver and 74,000 acres of the old forest stretching north toward the Brendon Valley.

Barn owl chicks which were found nesting at Driver Farm, on Exmoor, and which have since fledged. PHOTO: ENPA
Barn owl chicks which were found nesting at Driver Farm, on Exmoor, and which have since fledged. PHOTO: ENPA ( )

Called ‘Reviving Exmoor Heartlands’, the scheme is intended to support farmers and land managers to work at a landscape scale for nature.

The development work will shape the 20-year scheme, which will be open to participants in 2026.

An ENPA spokesperson said: “Other work on the ground at Driver has been the start of our ambitious Countryside Stewardship Scheme with hay cuts and grazing in place.

“Alongside that work we have been working to restore hay meadows at Driver through our ‘Sowing the Seeds’ project.

“Educational visits have been running from our outdoor education centre at Pinkery.

“During 2025, we will refurbish the farmhouse.

“Plans have already been drawn up for this work, but were paused awaiting capital funding from land sales which will fund the work.”