The Estate
Nearly twenty years ago, Mark and Katie Wyatt and their four children discovered The Banks, a place of rare quiet, layered history, and untapped promise - set amidst the folds of Mountfield, East Sussex.
They knew they had found something extraordinary.
The land itself carries centuries in its soil. Once held by King Harold before the Norman conquest, it passed to Onfroy du Tilleul - featured in the Bayeux Tapestry - and later to Robert, Count of Eu, whose name appears in the Domesday Book. A hoard of ancient Celtic ring money was discovered nearby in 1863, adding yet another layer to the story beneath our feet.
At its heart stands a medieval hall house - built in the 13th century, expanded during Elizabeth I’s reign, and later shaped by Victorian ambition. The house once belonged to Sir John Bennett, the flamboyant watchmaker and Sheriff of London, and later home to Charles Egerton, whose wife Mabelle Annie Brassey descended from one of Britain’s greatest railway dynasties.
Sir John Bennet
Where expertise meets precision
Inspired by the great Champagne houses, we built our own tea factory and lab to ensure nothing less than excellence.
Our state-of-the-art facility allows us to oversee every stage of production - from leaf to cup - guided by quality management systems that preserve the integrity, character, and consistency of our estate-grown tea. Every decision is made in service of the most luxuriant result.
Nestled at 50 metres above sea level, our tea grows where hops once thrived - on gently sloping former hop fields, still shaped by Victorian drainage channels laid with quiet precision over a century ago.
The soil is a marriage of sand and clay - low in pH, and just slightly too acidic for hops, yet perfectly balanced for the cultivation of Camellia sinensis. Rich in minerals, with hints of gypsum and deep reserves of clay, it mirrors the growing conditions of China’s revered south eastern tea regions.
