Estate to build 'UK's largest beaver enclosure'

The owners of an estate in Gloucestershire have plans to build what they said would be the largest beaver enclosure in the UK.

Elmore Court, a Grade II listed mansion by the River Severn near Stroud, is planning a reconstruction of its land to include a new beaver enclosure as well as the introduction of wild ponies and pigs as part of a rewilding project started in 2020.

"The next chapter will see the construction of the UK's largest beaver enclosure," a spokesperson for the estate said.

Custodian of the estate Anselm Guise said "protecting and restoring nature" could not "sit apart from making the estate work economically". He said he was "constantly working to find this balance".

Guise said the project would take two years to complete.

The Guise family have called Elmore home for the past 750 years.

In 2020, Guise made the decision to set aside almost 500 acres of the estate for rewilding through an ambitious nature recovery project in order to bring wildlife habitats back to the land.

"As the current custodian of the estate I feel a huge responsibility for what happens to this precious land," he said.

"Ultimately, everything we do at Elmore has to be about leaving it in a better state for generations to come."

The new beaver enclosure will see the construction of a seven kilometre fence around the rewilding project to create a new habitat for beavers, wild ponies and pigs to be introduced, joining the longhorn cattle which already live on the estate.

Their natural behaviours will help regenerate the landscape and improve conditions to encourage wildlife to thrive, Guise said.

"For the estate this is not simply a new look but it's been a chance to reflect on where we have come from and plan for the next chapter in a story that has been unfolding for more than 750 years.

"It really is incredibly exciting."

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