Rewilding a kingdom

He's a rebel aristocrat on a mission to rebuild an entire kingdom - one where nature comes first. Fergus Collins meets the lord spearheading a nationwide rewilding revolution

- Fergus Collins

“Dad used to call me a feckless environmentalist,” Hugh Crossley says warmly of his father, the 3rd Baron Somerleyton. “But he was a conservationist in his own way - he's the reason we have good hedgerows, and why it's a traditional mixed farm.”

We're walking in parkland at Somerleyton Hall, a magnificent Victorian stately home and the heart of the 4th Baron Somerleyton's 2,023-hectare estate on the Norfolk-Suffolk border. We're talking rewilding - in particular, Hugh's dream of seeing 20% of Britain devoted to nature.

With friends Argus Hardy and Olly Birkbeck, Hugh is launching WildKingdom, which aims to link nature-friendly farming and gardening projects across Britain through a 'Map of Dreams' - “to inspire and accelerate societal change”. If more of us set aside land, time and energy for biodiversity, he says, we can “pay back our debt to nature”.

It's been an interesting journey - and not without controversy. Two of the biggest barriers Hugh has faced are stalwarts of the British countryside: convention and tradition. It takes a certain rebelliousness - or “contrariness”, as Hugh calls it - to overcome these, even as a landed peer. And there's an element of mutiny in the way the former restaurateur dresses, eschewing the rural gentry's regular uniform of cords, checked shirt and gilet for old jeans and a fleece.

The story starts with a 12-hectare block of parkland at Somerleyton. Even in November, this rough grassland is studded with wildflowers and herbs.

“Until about 12 years ago this was a wheat-growing field, having been turned over to production in the war,” explains Hugh. “I wanted to return it to wildlife, and the grants for converting arable back to parkland were generous. It took a big battle with my old farm manager, because it was seen as 'good land'. But I wore him down eventually.”