Hardwick Community Energy  

Hardwick Community Energy is based at Hardwick Estate – an organic, sustainably managed family-run rural estate covering 900 acres in the Chiltern Hills in South Oxfordshire.

IThe estate comprises Hardwick Hall, several farming and educational enterprises, 430 acres of mixed forestry, and a small community of people living and working on the land.

Hardwick Energy Group formed in November 2022 with the aim of reducing the estate’s energy consumption, exploring opportunities for on-site renewable energy generation, and raising the environmental standards of its homes, buildings and houseboats. Options under consideration include rooftop solar PV on the main house and 27 smaller homes, as well as ground-mount solar across up to 400 acres of the site.

Hardwick is also an estate in transition in another sense. The Rose family – inspired by community-owned estates in Scotland – have decided to gift the estate to the community who live on it, to be managed as a charity. Set to become the first community-led estate in England, Hardwick Trust will be governed by trustees elected from the estate’s residents, with the community holding the organisation to account. The first seven community trustees were elected in April 2025.