Our Story

Trewithen has remained in the same family since 1715, with a history spanning four centuries.

Today, the estate is owned by the Galsworthy family and entrusted to the capable hands of Sam and Kitty Galsworthy. As the tenth generation to care for this land, they’re able to draw on the experience and wisdom of what has passed before, learning valuable lessons from traditional and time-honoured methods. Alongside this, they’re breathing fresh life into the estate and its management; pioneering sustainable farming, soil regeneration, and meaningful, well-informed restoration. At the heart of their approach is the concept of living in harmony with people and place.

And of course, its people are central characters in the story of any place. First among the family to live here was Philip Hawkins, who bought Trewithen in 1715. Since then, it’s passed through the Hawkins, Johnstone and Galsworthy lines, to the present day. But in a place of Trewithen’s scale, it takes real grit, determination and hard work to make things tick; qualities that we’ve found among our staff, volunteers and tenant farmers. We see our story as one with many characters as well as many chapters.