A couple running one of Kent’s last remaining market gardens supplying fresh produce direct to restaurants and homes fear the land could be sold for redevelopment.

Paul and Michelle Vesey-Wells have worked at Walmestone Growers at Preston, near Canterbury, for nine years but now the owners of the eight-acre site want to sell up.

The plot has been a nursery since the 1950s and once belonged to Howletts zoo founder John Aspinall, who used it to grow vegetables for his animals.

It is now owned by the Aspers Casino – a company set up by his son Damian Aspinall and Kerry Packer but which Mr Aspinall is no longer connected with.

Agent Hobbs Parker has valued the land and property, which includes a farmhouse, at £650,000 and says it offers “a rare opportunity to buy a working nursery and market garden in a quiet east Kent location”.

But it also adds that it has “potential for a variety of uses, subject to planning”.

It is that potential use that Mr Vesey-Wells fears could open the door to redevelopment, including possibly new housing.

The couple, who have teenage children and live on-site under agricultural workers’ rights, are passionate about what they do and are desperate to buy the site.

“It’s now owned by the Aspers Group which has no interest in running a market garden and we fear for its future,” said Mr Vesey-Wells, 43, who has spent his life working in horticulture.

“But market gardens like this are becoming increasingly rare as many have been built on. Yet they provide freshly grown produce to their local communities, food markets and restaurants, which is surely what we should be doing.

“Quite honestly, we can’t see someone buying it as a going concern because it’s hard work and not an easy way of making money, but we are prepared to put in the effort to make it viable.”

Walmestone Growers was formally closed as a business in October this year and staff were laid off. But Mr and Mrs Vesey-Wells have continued to run the operation, rebranding it East Kent Growers, while they prepare their own bid to buy it.

The nursery produces a wide range of crops, including tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, herbs, beans, courgettes, squash, lettuce, salad leaves, kale, leeks and carrots, both outdoors and under glass and polytunnels, using organic methods to avoid herbicides and insecticides.

The business supplies more than 30 restaurants - some Michelin-starred - as well as caterers, farm shops and private households through its boxed vegetables scheme. It has until recently also supplied Howletts with produce.

The couple now hope to get investors on board to keep the land for small-scale organic farming and make their dream come true.

“We both love growing and want to continue and to hopefully save the site from potential developers, as has happened to other market gardens like this one,” said Mr Vesey-Wells.

The couple are in the process of launching an option for backers to buy shares in the business and are also seeking support through a crowdfunding page in the hope of raising £50,000.

“We have an excellent mortgage broker on board, working behind the scenes to secure us a loan to buy the site, but we are very short on funds for a deposit and so that is why we are asking for help,” said Mrs Vesey-Wells.

“We know it’s a lot to ask but we believe the land should not be lost to housing and has so much potential to be a market garden for many years to come.”

Anyone who can support the couple in their business venture can call them on 07759 046124.

Aspers Casinos has not responded to a request by KentOnline for a comment.