Painting to be used as inspiration for Killerton Estate

The painting is helping to inspire a 50-year vision to change the landscape at the Killerton Estate in Devon

A 19th Century painting is helping to inspire a 50-year vision for the landscape of a Devon estate.

The National Trust is taking inspiration from a watercolour of the Killerton Estate to expand the habitat and create areas rich in wildlife.

The painting is believed to be by the 11th Baronet Sir Thomas Dyke Acland whose family donated Killerton to the National Trust in 1944.

It shows a diverse landscape rich in mature trees and hedgerows.

The painting also has areas of scrub with roaming highland cattle.

Plans for planting trees, wild grasses and flowers at Ellerhayes are in the first phase of work at the Killerton Estate.

The charity is now launching a 15-month project, which has has received a £750,000 grant from the Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to reconnect the river with its floodplain to reduce flooding, plant new hedgerows and woodland among other measures.

Paul Hawkins, National Trust project manager, said the plans involved thinking about the landscape they need to deliver in 50 years.

"Nature is incredibly powerful but sometimes we need to give it a helping hand," he said.

"We want to ensure the estate now evolves to capture more carbon and to help the land, wildlife and livestock cope with more extreme weather events."

Mr Hawkins said the estate as it was now might look green and beautiful but the reality was much of the wildlife that was on the estate when the picture was painted, had been lost.

He added: "We are aiming to expand, improve and join up our nature spaces to help wildlife thrive, so it's easier for species to move across an otherwise fragmented landscape in response to climate change and to build resilience."

Drawings showing the central section of the landscape at Killerton in 2021 and anticipated changes by 2071