00:00Among the ancient woodlands of Tunbridge Wales you may find a picturesque scene.
00:08Scotney Castle has a rich history dating back to the 12th century and some of the oldest parts of the castle were built in 1378.
00:17The estates were then purchased by the Hussey family.
00:20Edward Hussey III transformed this castle into a room for a new focal point of his new landscape garden.
00:28Originally built by Roger Ashburnham as a fortified manor house to protect against a possible French invasion.
00:34The medieval castle now is a part of the garden which is the centrepiece of Edward Hussey III's vision.
00:40As in the mid 19th century they built this Victorian mansion.
00:44Scotney Castle became a part of the National Trust in 1970 and after three generations of the Hussey family calling the castle their home the site opened to visitors in 2007.
00:56And since they have been trying to conserve the diverse landscape with a helping hand from native grazing cattle.
01:03The land has a deep rooted connection with the Sussex cattle with the first herd appearing in 1896.
01:09Scotney Castle has got this really good history of having prize winning Sussex cattle.
01:14And in the house there is a picture of one of the prize winning cows at one of the top award at one of the local agricultural shows.
01:21Today the herd is a combination of Longhorn and Sussex.
01:24Selected to help biodiversity thrive the cows have a unique grazing technique which helps create space for more diverse plant life.
01:32I started to notice there was a deterioration in some of the plant species that we had here.
01:37And I was backing this up with some ecological survey work done as well.
01:40I wanted to bring back these rare species, so like the orchids, the kind of barefoot treffles back in,
01:44back into this parkland landscape to make it look fantastic how it used to be.
01:48As this is one of the best preserved picturesque landscapes in the country now.
01:53So actually trying to bring back those elements that are also very good for wildlife back into it.
01:57We're really noticing things like your insect eating birds, so we're having things like the woodpeckers coming in bigger numbers as well.
02:02We're noticing that butterflies as well, the numbers are also increasing.
02:07So these two species really are fantastic to see coming back.
02:10With the conservation efforts to increase biodiversity and create a climate resilient landscape,
02:15the herd will graze their way into Scotney's history.
