On the Podcast
A fascinating conversation about our unique organisation



Our Property Director Michael Birnie and Head of Learning Programmes Development Sarah White recently joined KOR Communications’ Estate Matters podcast host Anna Byles for a discussion about the work of the Trust. Here’s a flavour of the conversation.
The management of the nine estates spread across the UK that make up the landholdings of The Ernest Cook Trust is carried out with a clear focus on the Trust’s primary purpose as an education-based charity.
That’s what gives the Trust and its estates – from Dorset to Cumbria – a unique place in the community, Michael says. As a constantly evolving charity it is important to communicate what the Trust does and why it is doing it, he adds.
Michael and Sarah explain the background to the Trust, founded in 1952 by Ernest Cook. Ernest inherited a fortune from his grandfather, the holidays and travel pioneer Thomas Cook. With a passion for the countryside Ernest invested in several country estates which were eventually bequeathed to The Ernest Cook Trust.
Significant funds were subsequently raised through the new community of Fairford Leys Aylesbury, built on Trust land and now seen as a benchmark for urban design.
That enabled the Trust to invest further, generate more income and deliver more education. As a result, children and young people, who might not ordinarily get the opportunity to experience time in nature, now get that chance.
Managing estates for farm tenants, commercial tenants and residents generates the profits that are ploughed back into the charitable work. The estates themselves provide the sites where much of that education can take place. Michael says:
We’re in the business of helping people who don’t get that opportunity to touch soil…to put on a pair of wellies. It is that simple.
Sarah explains that measuring the educational value of the Trust’s work is essential:
In the end, if we want to sit at the table of policy change – which we do, in terms of education – it’s important that we can compare to national benchmarks and see how we’re doing.
She tells the podcast there is also an important emotional element to the educational work that’s more difficult to quantify, but still vital – like the “awe and wonder” a child feels when walking in a wood and that might, years later, prompt a life-changing decision:
I think we need to keep that in our hearts as well.
View our privacy policy.