History

Set on top of a mountain in the beautiful Carmarthenshire countryside, the site called ‘Blwch Rhagodfa’, has produced many of the ‘firsts’ in the captive breeding of vultures. Originally the private passion of Manfred, the collection over the years has held most of the vulture species found not just in Europe but also in Asia, South America and both Northern and Southern Africa. In the early days, griffon vultures would be free flown around the Welsh valleys often visiting the local pubs where signs would ask patrons ‘not to feed the vultures’.

Manfred Horstmann

Manfred was born in Halle, Germany in 1943 and grew up in West Germany after WWII. At 18, he moved to the UK to find work and over the next few years, managed to renovate properties in Covent Garden to create The Fielding Hotel. This proved to be a resounding success and he used his resulting profits to fund his true passion of conservation.

His initial collection of vultures were housed near Royal Tunbridge Wells, comprising of both old and new world species. Aged 38, he decided to move his collection to the site in Carmarthenshire, Wales and focus on old world vulture species only. Always an intensely private man, he never sought publicity for the work he was doing, even when he had significant successes, including being the first person to breed several species of vulture in captivity in the UK.

With the move to Wales he, along with his partner Brett Sloman, was able to dedicate himself to this lifelong passion of breeding endangered vultures with the longterm goal of their conservation and release back to the wild.

Brett Sloman

Brett was born in Auckland, New Zealand in 1947 where he completed his schooling and left aged 19 to explore the world. After qualifying as a solicitor, he met Manfred and was invited to see his collection of birds. Brett has referred to this visit as a road to Damascus moment as it led him on his own journey of discovering vultures.

When the time came to move Manfred’s collection from Royal Tunbridge Wells, Brett was influenced by his love of the Brecon Beacons and together, they built our Carmarthenshire site. Brett oversaw the initial construction and moving of the birds, and after leaving his post as a lawyer for the Brecon Beacons National Park, became more involved with Manfred’s wider work.

After Manfred’s death, Brett continued his work until age 74, when he felt it was time for new blood to take on the collection to ensure its long term future.

The Present

In 2020, Brett Sloman approached a group of like-minded conservationists in order to find a future for the collection, after his retirement. This group of people became our Founding Trustees as we created a charity, and in 2023 we launched the Horstmann Trust.

About us

Meet the Team