It is our pleasure to welcome you to Great Oakley, which has been in the ownership of my family since 1575.  You never actually own an Estate, you merely look after it for the next generation and we hope very much that this website gives you a flavour of our activities over the centuries.

Sir Arthur de Capell Brooke in 1820, discovered The Northern Cape of Norway and went on to become one of the founding members of The Royal Geographical Society.  But what gives us, as a family, our greatest ‘buzz’ is our role in the wider community and making a difference to other people’s lives.

In the mid 1980’s, my late father decided it was time that a new school be constructed on the farm here at Great Oakley, when only two people in the whole borough of Corby went to a  University. This was driven by a passion for good, state funded education and the huge positive effect it can have not only on children, but local communities.

After a number of years of work The Brooke City Technology College opened in 1991 and then with the support of the Weston family, in particular Garry Weston, it became The Brooke Weston City Technology College.  Today, that same school is known as The Brooke Weston Academy.  The Brooke Weston Academy year on year has been rated as one of the UK’s top performing state schools across a range of measures.

Sir Norman Foster designed our second school, The Corby Business Academy.

The unique partnership between the de Capell Brooke and Weston families gave birth to The Brooke Weston Trust, an educational charity which now educates more than 10,000 students each year in all areas of education from the ages of 3-18 years.  All of the schools within the Trust are rated by OFSTED as outstanding or good, and many have been opened by various Prime Ministers over the years.   The latest school within the Trust, a primary school in the market town of Thrapston, opened in October 2023, and in 2025 a new school for 600 pupils in the town of Wisbech will open its doors.

Our mission is to transform educational performance across our communities.

Away from our role in the community, Great Oakley is involved in agriculture where the dairy herd with nearly 500 cows in milk, which are out at grass for nine months of the year, are busy producing milk which is made into Stilton Cheese.  In addition, our arable teams are busy growing a wide variety of crops to the highest standards for organisations such as Warburtons, whilst taking care of the environment with extensive conservation schemes.

Climate change is one of the greatest challenges facing the world in the years ahead.  In 2012, we planted over 30,000 trees and created The Bescaby Oaks Diamond Wood, which was then chosen by The Woodland Trust to be one of 60 Diamond Woods to celebrate HM Queen Elizabeth’s Diamond Jubilee.  This new woodland is registered for carbon credits.

Outside of agriculture, The Estate is heavily involved in some of the largest real estate projects in the UK, where we hope to create communities for people to enjoy living, learning and spending recreational time.   There is ample evidence to suggest that where care and thought is given to the creation of a community, ‘people’ will respond and thrive.  As well as real estate interests in the UK, Great Oakley is also a European business with Irish real estate interests not far from the City of Cork.

Should you be close to Uppingham, where another de Capell Brooke many years ago decided to buy a farm on the edge of the Eyebrook Reservoir, please walk to the dam wall.  At this wall is a plaque commemorating The Dambusters who used the reservoir to perfect The Bouncing Bomb.

Thank you for visiting us.

With our best wishes

Alexander de Capell Brooke