Walsingham Estate Map
- Who Owns Norfolk?
- 2 days ago
- 3 min read
Updated: 8 hours ago
The map below displays the full extent of the ancient Walsingham Estate.
Who Owns Norfolk produced the Walsingham Estate Map. To our knowledge this is the first map of the estate to be made publicly available.
Walsingham Estate is just over 5,000 acres in size, and is one of Norfolk's largest private estates. It is centred on the country manor known as Walsingham Abbey House; the estate owns much of Little Walsingham, a small village near the North Norfolk coast, but it also includes large parts of Great Walsingham and Great Snoring.
The estate also owns woodland, a large area of estate parkland and a section of the River Stiffkey, a globally rare chalk stream habitat.
The estate is likely worth about £50 million (see valuation towards the end of this article); in 2023, the estate received £200,000 in government subsidies (more recent figures are not available) (source).
Walsingham Estate Map: Who owns the Walsingham Estate?
The estate is owned by one Clovis Meath Baker and his family. Clovis is a grandson of John Gurney, himself a scion of the Gurney banking dynasty. The Gurney family set up a Norwich-based banking business that grew to opulent proportions and gained them the reputation as one of Britain's richest families. They were so rich that their name became a byword for wealth - in Gilbert and Sullivan's 1875 comic opera Trial by Jury, a character describes his accumulation of wealth until he "became as rich as the Gurneys" (source).
The Gurney bank was potentially the largest, if not the 2nd largest, of the Quaker-led banks that merged to become Barclays in 1896 (source). With their accruing wealth numerous branches of the family were ably to buy country estates and they remain significant landowners in the county. The Walsingham Estate represents the largest extant Gurney estate (source).
The Gurneys are purportedly descended from the Dukes of Gournay - Norman lords who accompanied William the Conqueror and were granted lands across England (including Norfolk) as a reward and married into the the Conqueror's royal family (source). A junior branch lost its landed status but was able to achieve success as merchants. A John Gurney born in 1655 established himself as a wool merchant in Norwich. His son, Joseph Gurney (b. 1692) likely bought the Keswick Estate near Norwich in the 1700s (source). Gurney's Bank was founded in 1770 (source).
A medieval John Gurney who died in 1408 owned the West Barsham Estate (source), which is Walsingham's neighbouring estate. Clovis' family and their ancestors have therefore owned land in this part of Norfolk since at least the 1300s, i.e., over 700 years. Clovis' grandfather John Gurney bought Walsingham Estate from his relatives the gentry Lee Warner family in 1921 (source). John's mother was a Lee Warner (source); this family had bought Walsingham Estate back in 1650 (source). Clovis' family have therefore directly owned the Walsingham Estate for nearly 400 years (i.e., 100 years longer than the USA has been a country).
On top of his aristocratic credentials Clovis Meath Baker enjoyed a fairly distinguished career: he was Director of Intelligence Production at GCHQ 2010-13, and previously filled senior foreign service roles dealing with the Middle East, Counter-Proliferation, and Iran 2003-10. He has served abroad in Afghanistan, Czechoslovakia, Turkey, Pakistan and Iran (source).
Walsingham Estate Map: How much is the estate worth?
Arable land values in the East of England were approximately £9,289/acre in 2024 (source). Based on its land size alone, and excluding any buildings on the estate (of which there are many), Walsingham Estate is likely worth around £50 million, which is likely a minimum.
As noted above, in 2023 the estate received £200,000 in government subsidies (more recent figures are not available) (source).
Who Owns Norfolk Estate Maps
Who Owns Norfolk has produced other maps of Norfolk estates, including:
Other Who Owns Norfolk Maps
The full Who Owns Norfolk map can be found here.
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