Covering some 3,000 hectares (7,400 acres), the Needwood Survey was formed out of the Needwood Forest, part of the Honor of Tutbury, which was granted to Edmund, 1st Earl of Lancaster, in 1266.

Needwood Forest used to be expansive, but by the nineteenth century it had been reduced to 3,237 hectares. Much deforestation took place between 1805 and 1811, and the area became subject to the new practice of enclosure of common lands. The layout of most of the roads date from this time.

The cleared land was used for agriculture. The farms in the western part of the estate were mainly created out of enclosures allocated to the Duchy of Lancaster. Other farms originated in the former deer parks. Venison from them was supplied to royal palaces as late as Queen Victoria’s reign. Nowadays there are 20 farms, on which dairy farming is the principal enterprise.

There are still 490 hectares of woodland in the Duchy area, mostly oak and ash. Areas of the estate now form part of the National Forest designation. (www.nationalforest.org). On the edge of the estate the Duchy owns a thriving, private, former wartime airfield.

The Duchy owns extensive gypsum deposits in Tutbury. Tutbury alabaster is well known; Hanbury Church contains what is probably the earliest English alabaster effigy.

Among historic properties on the estate is Tutbury Castle, where Mary Queen of Scots was briefly imprisoned. Still owned by the Duchy, it is let and open to the public during the summer.