About Farm491

Farm491 is a business development space focused on land use innovation and the future of farming and food systems.

Established in 2016, we are located on the Royal Agricultural University’s beautiful Cotswold campus in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

We work with entrepreneurs and businesses through all their stages of growth, leveraging our unique Farm491 network of academics and researchers, expert business advisors and dedicated service providers, to help their businesses thrive. This is achieved through strategic advice, investment support, talent building, customer access and embedding them into a like-minded community.

With our name referring to the hectarage of the historic Royal Agricultural University Farms, which was 491 hectares, we were initially located in the impressive Trent Lodge, former home of Robert Jeffreys Brown who was the first proponent of the Royal Agricultural College in 1842. 

We still use the magnificent Trent Lodge for residential offices and conferences, but today also occupy the adjacent purpose-built business hub, the Alliston Centre, which offers a more modern co-working, office and conference space for our members and visitors.