ROBERT HARDMAN: Charles believes small farmers are the ‘backbone of Britain’. And he will not desert them now that he is King

There was a faintly wistful edge to the celebrations a few days ago as the King was welcomed back to what is, in one sense, his home town. After all, if it wasn’t for him, this place wouldn’t exist.

Up until the 1990s, Poundbury, in Dorset, was a patch of farmland, owned by the Duchy of Cornwall.

The then Prince of Wales set about turning it into his vision of a modern town built on traditional lines. Modernist architects and town planners scoffed that it was twee, outdated and doomed to failure.

Nearly 30 years later, it is thriving and expanding for the simple reason that people love living in a tidy, pretty town which looks like a Georgian film set, has more than 200 businesses, 2,500 jobs, 5,000 residents, a good school and neither a yellow line nor a traffic warden.

‘Thank you for our lovely home,’ says Julie Wargent, a recent arrival from Northamptonshire, as the King and Queen enjoy a walkabout, unveil a bronze relief of themselves and open a new garden named after the Duke of Edinburgh.

This is his first visit since becoming King. After he moves on, however, there is a whispered question: will there be any more? After all, he is no longer Duke of Cornwall and Prince William is now in charge of the duchy. Is this actually Charles’s fond farewell?

Almost certainly not, but it echoes a recurring question being asked by numerous institutions and organisations. What next for the Monarch formerly known as Prince?

One consequence of being the longest-serving heir to the Throne in history (and a restless one to boot) is that the former Prince of Wales attached his name, literally, to hundreds of organisations.

They range from the most famous, the Prince’s Trust, to organisations like the Samaritans or Marie Curie of which he was patron. As soon as he became King, they were all told that this arrangement would have to go on hold. That seemed understandable at the time.

Now that the Coronation is over, however, they are all pressing for some sort of guidance on their future affiliations so that they can plan accordingly.

It is a major task for the King’s private secretaries, especially since the charity sector is on an entirely different scale when compared to the last change of reign. There are all the patronages of the late Queen (more than 600) plus the 420 which the King accumulated as Prince. The new Prince of Wales has his own portfolio of organisations to which he is firmly committed.

So who gets the King, who gets someone else and who has to go it alone? None of this was ever going to be a quick fix.

However, it is becoming a more pressing question for those organisations which he himself founded, even more so for those which bear his name.

Now we have an answer. The Mail’s new Royal’s section can reveal that the first of his creations to take the plunge into a new post-princely future is the Prince’s Countryside Fund. This week [WEDS], subject to the necessary approvals from the government, it will be relaunched as the Royal Countryside Fund. It will be an independent charity but very much with his blessing

I gather that there was a suggestion of making it ‘The King’s Countryside Fund’ but the King himself thought that this could be too restrictive; better to take the long view, into the next reign and beyond.

‘It was his vision and passion which have got us to where we are and he is right behind us as we head off in an independent direction,’ says chief executive Keith Halstead. Devised, designed and founded by the Prince himself in 2010, it provides grants and training, specifically aimed at the smaller, family-run farm which he has always regarded as the backbone of the countryside.

Mr Halstead insists that there will be no change to the charity’s day to day activities. That will all come as a great relief to the thousands of farmers who have come to rely on it over the years. Since the death of the late Queen last September, fund staff have received many anxious calls asking whether it would carry on at all. The same has been happening at other charities with ‘Prince’ in their title.

One of those who expresses concern when I meet him is Exmoor hill farmer, Dave Knight, 39. He lives with his GP wife and three small children at Wydon Farm, the family’s tenant farm for four generations. He explains that it is the Prince’s Countryside Fund which is the financial mainstay behind the local Exmoor Hill Farming Network. This includes 400 farms and farm businesses. It is that, says Mr Knight, which keeps the entire local farming community ticking over.

It now does everything from updating your crop-spraying certificates to lessons in book-keeping. It also acts as a social hub for those who often have to lead a pretty solitary existence. ‘I can’t envisage how we’d fill the gap if it wasn’t there,’ he says. Farmers on Exmoor, for example, would otherwise have to drive hours each way for a new training course to comply with a new piece of red tape – and so might not do so at all.

Yet is highly unlikely that the new Prince of Wales will want to take on all his father’s old charities since he has so many of his own already.

So when I break the news that the King is sending the organisation on its way with the ‘Royal’ imprimatur, Mr Knight is delighted. ‘In a way that’s even better I suppose because it shows he cares and it gives the thing more permanence,’ he says.

One of the fund’s trustees, Elizabeth Buchanan, has been on the board from the start. She used to work as private secretary to the then Prince of Wales, before leaving the Palace to return to the family farm in Sussex.

She says that the Prince loved nothing more than sitting in a farmhouse kitchen discussing the strains, stresses and joys of farming life. ‘He understands farming as well as anyone. He could see that life was getting more difficult in many ways and he realised there were ways he might be able to help them,’ she recalls.

Since its creation, the fund has acquired a broad range of supporters. Its celebrity ambassadors include Miranda Hart, Alexander Armstrong and Elizabeth Hurley while its trustees include Baroness Rock, author of Parliament’s Rock Report on farming.

Elsewhere on Exmoor, I meet Chris and Paula Williams at Brandish Street Farm where they live with their three sons, 600 ewes and 40 suckler cows. Just before lockdown, they joined one of the fund’s (free) ‘farm resilience programmes’. They say that it has transformed their fortunes.

Expert advisers prompted them to change their grazing programmes and sort out succession planning. Two of their three sons, both would-be young farmers, have now joined the network’s ‘Next Generation’ group. It also inspired Paula, herself a farmer’s daughter, to establish a glamping business.

When I explain that the King is giving the charity a royal seal of approval, Paula is delighted: ‘Let’s just hope it stays the same, whatever the name.’.

Becoming ‘royal’ does not just require the King’s permission, although that is pretty crucial in this instance. Use of the word is governed by the Constitutional Policy unit at the Cabinet Office (to protect consumers from fraudsters claiming royal provenance).

This was one of the elementary mistakes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they left the UK in 2020 to start their new life in the USA. Prior to leaving Britain, they had secretly created an entire franchise based around the ‘sussexroyal.com’ brand. They were then told this was in breach of the rules because they lacked permission to use the term ‘royal’.

‘It was his vision and passion which have got us to where we are and he is right behind us as we head off in an independent direction,’ says chief executive Keith Halstead. Devised, designed and founded by the Prince himself in 2010, it provides grants and training, specifically aimed at the smaller, family-run farm which he has always regarded as the backbone of the countryside.

Mr Halstead insists that there will be no change to the charity’s day to day activities. That will all come as a great relief to the thousands of farmers who have come to rely on it over the years. Since the death of the late Queen last September, fund staff have received many anxious calls asking whether it would carry on at all. The same has been happening at other charities with ‘Prince’ in their title.

One of those who expresses concern when I meet him is Exmoor hill farmer, Dave Knight, 39. He lives with his GP wife and three small children at Wydon Farm, the family’s tenant farm for four generations. He explains that it is the Prince’s Countryside Fund which is the financial mainstay behind the local Exmoor Hill Farming Network. This includes 400 farms and farm businesses. It is that, says Mr Knight, which keeps the entire local farming community ticking over.

It now does everything from updating your crop-spraying certificates to lessons in book-keeping. It also acts as a social hub for those who often have to lead a pretty solitary existence. ‘I can’t envisage how we’d fill the gap if it wasn’t there,’ he says. Farmers on Exmoor, for example, would otherwise have to drive hours each way for a new training course to comply with a new piece of red tape – and so might not do so at all.

Yet is highly unlikely that the new Prince of Wales will want to take on all his father’s old charities since he has so many of his own already.

So when I break the news that the King is sending the organisation on its way with the ‘Royal’ imprimatur, Mr Knight is delighted. ‘In a way that’s even better I suppose because it shows he cares and it gives the thing more permanence,’ he says.

One of the fund’s trustees, Elizabeth Buchanan, has been on the board from the start. She used to work as private secretary to the then Prince of Wales, before leaving the Palace to return to the family farm in Sussex.

She says that the Prince loved nothing more than sitting in a farmhouse kitchen discussing the strains, stresses and joys of farming life. ‘He understands farming as well as anyone. He could see that life was getting more difficult in many ways and he realised there were ways he might be able to help them,’ she recalls.

Since its creation, the fund has acquired a broad range of supporters. Its celebrity ambassadors include Miranda Hart, Alexander Armstrong and Elizabeth Hurley while its trustees include Baroness Rock, author of Parliament’s Rock Report on farming.

Elsewhere on Exmoor, I meet Chris and Paula Williams at Brandish Street Farm where they live with their three sons, 600 ewes and 40 suckler cows. Just before lockdown, they joined one of the fund’s (free) ‘farm resilience programmes’. They say that it has transformed their fortunes.

Expert advisers prompted them to change their grazing programmes and sort out succession planning. Two of their three sons, both would-be young farmers, have now joined the network’s ‘Next Generation’ group. It also inspired Paula, herself a farmer’s daughter, to establish a glamping business.

When I explain that the King is giving the charity a royal seal of approval, Paula is delighted: ‘Let’s just hope it stays the same, whatever the name.’.

Becoming ‘royal’ does not just require the King’s permission, although that is pretty crucial in this instance. Use of the word is governed by the Constitutional Policy unit at the Cabinet Office (to protect consumers from fraudsters claiming royal provenance).

This was one of the elementary mistakes of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex when they left the UK in 2020 to start their new life in the USA. Prior to leaving Britain, they had secretly created an entire franchise based around the ‘sussexroyal.com’ brand. They were then told this was in breach of the rules because they lacked permission to use the term ‘royal’.