Tenants from a Dorset farm owned by Caius for almost 450 years joined others running shops just a stone's throw from the Lodge at a lunch hosted by the College.

The traditional tenants' lunch, last held in 2014, provides an opportunity for farmers, businesspeople and other tenants of Caius to meet the Master, Senior Bursar and other key College figures as well as the College's agents Bidwells, and to get to know one another. The event was held in the Cavonius Centre on the Harvey Court site, allowing guests to mingle and enjoy the sunshine in the gardens outside before the meal.

Among the guests were Joe and Casey Foot, farmers at the 1,000-acre Bincombe Estate in Dorset, which has been in College ownership since 1580. Fellow farmer Edward Dow, a tenant for 25 years, grazes young Aberdeen Angus beef cattle on Ditton Meadows in Cambridge, supplying meat to outlets including Waitrose and Marks & Spencer. Meanwhile Robert Smith farms 329 acres at College Farm, Duxford - growing crops including potatoes, onions, cereals andoilseed rape and inheriting the tenancy his father took on 78 years ago.

Fellow Cambridge businesspeople Charles and Marcus Bradford, also attending, run the thriving Gog Magog farm, farm shop and cafe just outside the city, while Philip Dendy and Dr Ricky Metaxas are trustees of the neighbouring Gog Magog Golf Club.

Other guests included Sinead O'Loghlen, who runs the Birdie & Co clothes shop on Rose Cresent, opposite the Old Courts. Rose Cresent is also home to Cheaney Shoes Ltd, owned by William Church and a family business for five generations making fine footwear entirely produced in England.

Raf Orlowski represented Ramboll UK Ltd, a leading engineering, design and consultancy company founded in Denmark in 1945 and renowned for work in sustainable buildings and complex science research facilities.

Bidwells guests included Andrew Long, David Powell and Jo Coxon (fund management) and Roland Bull and Rebecca Sharpe (rural portfolio).

Senior Bursar Dr David Secher welcomed the guests to Caius and praised the strength of the often lengthy relationships between the College and its tenants.