Lord Montagu lifts lid on ‘difficult year’ for attraction at Beaulieu Estate Dinner

WET weather and the ongoing cost-of-living crisis have seen a difficult year for Beaulieu and other visitor attractions across the New Forest, Lord Montagu has revealed.

Speaking at the annual Beaulieu Estate Dinner, he revealed that Beaulieu visitor numbers were down 6% – however, this is better than other visitor attractions had reported.

He warned the impact of significantly increased National Insurance contributions for employers, and higher-than-inflation increases to the minimum wage would place an additional strain on all businesses in the years ahead.

Lord Montagu said: “The continued business rate relief for the retail, hospitality and leisure sector in 2025 is welcome but other statements in the budget make me feel that this government really doesn’t understand the rural economy where capital values are high but yields are low – typically 1% return on agricultural land.”

He said many rural trade bodies including the NFU, CLA and HHA had all issued statements expressing “great concerns” about the effects of the budget, including the threat to UK food security.

Lord Montagu said that both farming and visitor attractions were negatively affected by wetter weather, with last winter the wettest on record for nearly 200 years. He added that England suffered its second worst harvest on record, with the production of key crops, including wheat and oats, dropping to their lowest volume in around 40 years.

Turning to the impact on Beaulieu, he said: “It isn’t that people don’t come out when it’s raining, but our field events can only take place when the ground is firm, and this spring it was so soggy that we had to postpone the first three of our Simply rallies.”

However, Lord Montagu said conditions improved by May when the BBC Gardeners’ World Spring Fair marked the start of the major events season, including a celebration marking the 50th anniversary of Beaulieu Monorail in July.

Turning to the need for visitor attractions to innovate and improve to meet modern expectations, Lord Montagu said: “An investment made with this in mind was a major re-fit of the Brabazon restaurant last winter.”

He added: “We also tested some new ideas, starting with a fairy and dragon trail along the Mill Pond Walk. During the summer holidays, we added something outside the motor museum called ‘We Had One of Those’ – essentially a small collection of vehicles from the 1960s to the 1990s which our visitors could sit in and reminisce about.

“We are now planning to develop this further using the area currently occupied by the World of Top Gear.”

The dinner also heard that in 2025 a number of rooms in Palace House will be opened to the public for the first time after a project undertaken in partnership with interior design students at Solent University in Southampton.

The annual dinner was held in Beaulieu’s ancient Domus, one of the few buildings of the Cistercian abbey to have survived destruction by Henry VIII.

This traditional end-of-year event has its origins in the audit dinners of the 18th century which were held after the harvest when tenants paid their rent and received a meal in return.

Guests now enjoy a three-course dinner with many of the estate’s tenants and local dignitaries attending. This year guests enjoyed Beaulieu 58 wine, produced from grapes grown at Beaulieu Vineyard by Sandy Booth and his team at New Forest Fruits.