Welcome! Who are we?

Welcome to the Manor Farm, Caxton website! We thought the best place to start was with the person at the heart of it all: our owner, Tom Pearson.

Manor Farm sits seven miles west of Cambridge, just off the A428, and it has been in Tom's family since the 1600s. Today it is a 1,500-acre arable farm growing wheat, barley, oats and beans. Generations of Pearsons have cared for this land, and Tom is continuing that story with a new focus on looking after the soil, water and wildlife for the generations to come.

A farmer with a medical background

Tom's path to farming is a little unusual. He is a medical doctor with a master's degree in public health, and that background shapes how he thinks about the farm. Medicine and public health teach you to look at the bigger picture: what keeps people well, and what shapes the health of a whole community. For Tom, the answer often begins with food, and with how it is grown.

He has a deep interest in how the way we grow food affects the health of the people who eat it, and of the soil, water and wildlife around us. Healthy soil, healthy food and healthy communities are closely connected, and that idea runs through everything we do at Manor Farm.

Tom's training as a doctor and public health researcher means he approaches the farm with a scientist's curiosity, asking not just "what works?" but "how do we know?". That mindset runs through Manor Farm, where we carry out our own in-house trials and take part in collaborative, funded research projects.

Find out more about our current research projects here: Research Projects

Farming with nature

This is why the farm puts such emphasis on regenerative farming, which uses less invasive methods to protect and rebuild the soil. You'll see it in action across the farm:

• Cover crops, which we don't sell, are grown to protect the soil from erosion and rebuild it. A local shepherd grazes his sheep on them too.

• Agroforestry strips, where fruit trees are planted within our arable fields.

• Hedgerows, from newly planted saplings to well-established, diverse hedges full of wildlife.

• Compost-making, which improves soil health. We often look at it under the microscope to see the life inside.

• A market garden, run by Adrienne Gordon owner of Sweet Pea Market Garden, producing organic fruit and vegetables for markets and corporate customers.

  
  

Find out more about how we farm on our web page: Our Practices

Opening the farm to the community

Tom believes people understand food best when they can see where it comes from. That's why the farm welcomes school visits, with the farm and market garden working together to offer fun, hands-on activities. Children can meet the sheep, explore the hedgerows and woodland, and find out what's living in a handful of compost.

In 2025 we built new farm offices that are fully accessible, with toilets (including a disabled toilet and shower), hand washing facilities with a trough at child height, a kitchen, and a large meeting room with a projector and speakers. Whatever the weather, we have a comfortable space for learning and food and farming conversations.

If you are interested in visiting us please reach out to us : Contact