Due to increasing workload and new management instructions, Adkin have various opportunities to join the team in our highly respected firm. We are open to applications from those due to complete their degree course shortly or those who already hold a relevant degree and may be part way through their training. You will be offered excellent bespoke training for your APC and CAAV assessments and will gain varied on-the-job experience working as part of our team. You will quickly be given responsibility for looking after our client’s needs with fantastic career prospects. This is a great chance to develop your career and be key in shaping the future of a dynamic and driven company.

Based in the attractive village of Ardington in Oxfordshire, our dedicated team offer an array of services including agricultural, commercial and residential disciplines, and therefore a wide variety of work and clients is attained. The position will offer a mix of both professional and Estate Management work.

Many of our clients have been with us for generations, something we are very proud of, and a testament to the reputation and expertise of the firm and our ability to move with the times. We work for a diverse range of clients with interesting and demanding requirements and whilst the majority are based in central southern England, we increasingly act for landowners nationwide.

Role requirements
✓ Working towards or completed RICS Accredited degree (we will also consider applications from graduates of other subjects on the understanding that they may have to undertake further study to “convert” their degrees)
✓ Willingness to learn
✓ Motivated and driven

What we can offer
✓ Ability to shape your role within the company
✓ Great careers prospects
✓ A competitive salary and benefits package
✓ Flexible working considered

Please send applications with your CV to:

Mrs Kerry Holbrook-Bull MRICS FAAV

kerry.holbrook-bull@adkin.co.uk

If you wish to call to discuss the position in the first instance, please contact Kerry on 07557 470520 or via the above e-mail address.

All applications and enquiries will be treated in strictest confidence.

The Adkin office will be closed from Friday 22nd December and will re-open on 2nd January 2024.

We would like to wish all of our clients, customers, tenants and contractors a very Merry Christmas and a Happy & Healthy New Year.

We are seeking an Assistant Surveyor at graduate level to join our highly respected firm based near Wantage, Oxfordshire. This is an exciting opportunity for an individual who has the ambition and talent to play a key role in the future of our business. You will be offered excellent bespoke training for your APC and CAAV assessments and will gain varied on-the-job experience working as part of our team. You will quickly be given plenty of responsibility for looking after our client’s needs.

The business provides professional advice and services to a wide range of predominantly private clients throughout Southern England. Working alongside the Directors, the role will involve;
• Estate, Residential, Commercial & Farm Management
• Agency Sales and Lettings
• Landlord and Tenant
• Valuations
• Compensation Claims
• Environmental and other Grant Schemes

A successful candidate will usually have completed a degree course approved by the RICS; however, we will also consider applications from graduates of other subjects on the understanding that they may have to undertake further study to “convert” their degrees.

Alongside full training, a competitive salary and benefits package will be offered.

We are looking at those who can commence employment from September 2024.

Please send applications by email with a covering letter and your CV to: Mrs Kerry Holbrook-Bull MRICS FAAV (kerry.holbrook-bull@adkin.co.uk)

If you wish to call to discuss the position in the first instance, please contact Kerry on 07557 470 520 or by the email address above.

All applications and enquires will be treated in strictest confidence.

Closing date for applications: Thursday 30th November 2023

First interviews to be held during the week commencing 11th December 2023

Second interviews to be held during the week commencing 18th December 2023

Baa, humbug when it comes to sheep!!

Many of us are accustomed to seeing sheep in our landscape but how many also appreciate that sheep helped create that landscape?

Britain was largely wooded and early settlers were responsible for creating the first fields, but not on their own. They needed assistance to keep former woodlands from their dominance. That help came from sheep. Our landscape didn’t happen by accident.

Sheep brought prosperity while helping maintain the cleared lands by nibbling down regrowth that would have seen the trees re-establish. The rolling downs we now accept as the English landscape were populated not only by sheep but also by people who grew wealthy off the backs of their animals. The wool they harvested from sheep was much-prized in the middle ages until the Spanish improved the wool quality of their breeds and ours fell out of favour. The money for the wool paid for abbeys, cathedrals, churches, and grand houses which we now regard as our heritage.

The sheep you see today are much different from the animals familiar 700 or 800 years ago. With the drop in wool’s value, a new source of income was found as sheep breeds were gradually altered to increase carcase size and meat quality. This came at the expense of wool and as most sheep farmers will tell you it now costs more to shear a sheep for its welfare than is obtained for the fleece. And that comes before the expense of transporting the worthless fleece to the British Wool Marketing Board depot where all are combined, sold, and an average price paid to producers.

Some farmers with fleeces prized by spinners, knitters, and weavers have exemption from the legal obligation to send all their wool to the BWMB and can gain real value from their fleeces, and therefore their sheep, by direct sales to private buyers.

Sheep, if they could talk, would probably have a little joke at our expense about how wool’s value has changed, something like don’t eat the hand that feeds you! Many sheep farmers will tell you that their animals have only one ambition, and that’s to die – even better if they can do it twice! But contrary to belief, sheep are not stupid. They can, for instance, remember human faces for up to two years so be careful what you do on that country walk!

Sheep, and their wool, have excellent value to us humans going forward. Some of the more primitive breeds, the Jacob, Shetland, Hebridean, and Manx Loaghtan for instance, are now opening up valued conservation areas, clearing away unwanted and rough vegetation so rare plants and habitats can flourish.

Wool is grown by sheep because it keeps them warm, it’s a great insulator. With that in mind, some want it used as a natural insulation product for our homes. It can also be ploughed in as a fertiliser. It’s all better than the woolly thinking that sees its value diminished.

If you want to know more about sheep, John Lewis-Stemple, a nature writer of magical style and also from a family who have kept sheep for hundreds of years, has written a marvellous new book, The Sheep’s Tale. It’s thin on page count, thick on information. Just right for a winter holiday read!