History
Until 1997 The hop farm was known as The Whitbread Hop Farm and was owned by the Whitbread brewery. Originally a working farm, the brewery opened it up to visitors and it proved a popular attraction.
As Whitbread were seeking to move out of the brewing trade, they began looking for new owners in the 1990s.
In 1997 Mohamed Al-Fayed wanted to buy The Hop Farm to stable his Shire horses, and another rival wanted it for a rare breeds centre, but Brent and Fiona Pollard were successful in their purchase, at a cost of 2 million pounds (beating their nearest rival by £5000). Unfortunately, due to mis-management, the business was in trouble; turnover was around £700,000 a year and in 1995 losses were £1.5 million. In their first year the Pollands reduced staff from 50 to 14 and suffered a drought, floods, a gas pipeline installation and the outbreak of foot and mouth disease. However they broke even, and in subsequent years their profits grew.
Read more about this topic: The Hop Farm Country Park
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—Tacitus (c. 55–117)
“Let it suffice that in the light of these two facts, namely, that the mind is One, and that nature is its correlative, history is to be read and written.”
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