The land at Wicklesham has been farmed since the thirteenth century, when a group of monks, attached to the Oxford colleges that owned the land, ran a small dairy, or wick, from the Old Barn that still exists today.

Wicklesham Lodge was bought with the surrounding farmland in 1922 by Captain Tom Allen-Stevens. He set up a highly successful and world-renowned Dairy Shorthorn breeding enterprise. From Wicklesham he sold bulls to local farmers, won countless best of breeds at shows across the UK, and even traded with ranches in the United States.

Farming changed apace during the course of the last century, and Wicklesham has changed, too. After the war, bull-breeding gave way to dairy-farming, which ended when milk quotas were introduced in the 1980s. Meanwhile the crop-producing area of the farm has grown, which now forms its main enterprise.