The Duchy of Cornwall, one of this year’s sponsors of the inaugural Hereford Times Food and Drink Awards, is no stranger to supporting the county’s food and drink businesses – from producers to makers to providers – being one of the joint founder members of the Hereford Food Partnership.

The Hereford Food Partnership was created to ensure a greater percentage of high quality Herefordshire food and drink produce is sold to the local community, and, by ensuring a buy-local approach, it looks not only to safeguard and create future job opportunities, but also to celebrate the region’s excellent home-grown food and drink.

The Duchy of Cornwall is committed to creating value for thriving local communities, investing time money and expertise across the estate. For example, this year it has hosted two Brexit seminars for Duchy farming tenants, the first of which, held in North Somerset, saw Hereford farmers among the 90 people who attended. The seminars were designed to enable tenants to share their views and concerns and to ensure they are resilient to change in the future.

In the county The Duchy of Cornwall Estate includes The Guy’s Estate, 4601 hectares of mostly Grade II land covering around 15 miles from Ross-on-Wye to Hereford, falling into six mostly agricultural sections, with some 500 hectares of spectacular woodland and a scattering of residential properties.

One of the Hereford Estate’s jewels is Harewood Park, a group of former farmsteads and parkland brought back to life through the conversion of redundant farm buildings into workplaces and homes.

The Duchy of Cornwall is a private estate established in 1337 by Edward III to provide an income for his son and heir, Prince Edward, with its charter ruling that each future Duke of Cornwall would be the eldest surviving son of the monarch and heir to the throne. The revenue from this estate is used to fund the public, private and charitable activities of the Duke and his children.