Story: Economic history

This painting of Cheviot Hills by Charles Barraud records one of the great sheep-farming estates in 19th-century Canterbury. Cheviot Hills was over 80,000 acres (around 32,000 hectares) in size and the owner William or ‘Ready-money’ Robinson lived a lavish lifestyle with a large homestead. The basis of his wealth was the farming of sheep for wool. But when refrigeration opened up a market for meat, it made possible a more intensive use of land, and such huge runs were broken up. Following Robinson’s death, Cheviot Hills was sold to the government in 1893 and divided up into smaller farms.