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In Could 1953, simply forward of Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in Westminster Abbey, Farmers Weekly celebrated the event with a characteristic known as “Queen’s Males”.
In a temper of patriotism, the journal proudly introduced to Her Majesty “a number of the main farmers of her realm”, with a snapshot of 12 of the main lights in British agriculture on the time.
Unsurprisingly, these main lights have lengthy gone out. However for some, their legacy lives on, and Farmers Weekly has tracked down 4 descendants who proceed to farm to today.
See additionally: Village creates bale artwork to rejoice Queen’s Platinum Jubilee
Geoffrey Waldegrave
Commanding the title of the twelfth Earl Waldegrave, Geoffrey Waldegrave was a hereditary peer and well-known agriculturalist primarily based at Manor Farm in Chewton Mendip, Somerset.
He studied land administration at Trinity School, Cambridge, graduating in 1928, and is described by his son William Waldegrave as a “critical and progressive farmer” who devoted his life to agriculture.
On the time he was talked about in Farmers Weekly, his farming property ran to 444ha and included Aryshire and Shorthorn cattle, in addition to Clun Forest sheep.
The enterprise additionally had a profitable cheddar cheese operation – Chewton Dairy Farms – and a pig unit to utilise the whey.
However it was in public life that Geoffrey actually made his title. Shortly after the Second World Battle he turned chairman of the Agricultural Government Council, and later a member of the Prince’s Council of the Duchy of Cornwall.
Then in 1958, he was appointed junior minister for agriculture – a place he held for 4 years.
“He would by no means have known as himself a politician,” says William, now Lord Waldegrave of North Hill, who was himself farm minister in John Main’s authorities in 1995.
“He was an agricultural skilled and was appointed to the ministry as such. He would by no means have taken a job in another division.”
William is now a director of Waldegrave Farms, renting some 250ha from his elder brother in Somerset, operating an natural dairy herd, with all of the milk bought to Omsco.
“When my father handed the enterprise over, about 5 years earlier than he died in 1995, we determined to go natural, as a result of we had numerous grass and plenty of house – a few of it on high of the Mendips.
“It’s not prime land, so it appeared logical to farm it extensively.
“We solely have black and white cattle now, although I do bear in mind the Ayrshires and Shorthorns,” he remembers.
“Dairy farming is a particularly tough enterprise, however I need to hold it going, partly as a result of I consider in it and partly in honour of my father.
“I’m a much less ‘hands-on’ farmer than he was, however we’re now within the technique of rebuilding the dairy and the cowsheds, so I believe my father can be happy with us.”
Rex Paterson
Dairy farmer and inventor Rex Paterson was a pioneer of the cellular milking bail system first developed by Alan Hosier in Hampshire within the Nineteen Twenties.
Rex was extraordinarily profitable, utilizing the system to supply milk from grass, and he was capable of increase his dairy enterprise quickly.
He rented a variety of farms in Hampshire and went on to purchase eight or 9 farms in Wales, first in Carmarthenshire after which across the coast of Pembrokeshire.
By 1942, Rex was farming greater than 4,000ha, and by the early Nineteen Seventies he had between 3,500 and 4,000 cows, break up into small herds of 50-80 so that they might be simply managed by one herdsman.
Rex’s dairy empire was scaled down considerably following his dying in 1978, although at the moment, his grandson, Douglas, remains to be milking in Hampshire and Wales.
He’s primarily based at Higher Cranbourne farm, north of Winchester, which he purchased in 1995 and was one of many farms Rex had rented.
“As a farmer, he was a self-made man,” says Douglas. “He began with little or no and constructed up by way of onerous work and persistence.
I’m always impressed along with his power and bravado, putting out, taking big dangers and having it repay. It’s got to be an inspiration to anyone.”
Douglas has 4 herds, 200 cows in every, throughout 4 farms – two in Hampshire and two in Wales.
“The farms in Wales are extra alongside the traces of what Rex would recognise and recognize.
“I don’t assume he would approve of the best way we milk cows in Hampshire, which is pretty excessive enter, primarily based on maize and bought-in feed.”
Douglas says his grandfather most likely picked up his engineering and inventing streak from his uncle, the aviation pioneer Sir Edwin Alliott Verdon Roe.
Rex was a pioneer of silage-making and labored with agriculture engineering firm Taskers of Andover to invent the Buckrake (long-toothed rake for gathering grass), and the Fertispread (one of many first rotary spinner fertiliser spreaders).
John Mackie
Born in Scotland in 1909, John was farming about 1,400ha in Laurencekirk, Kincardineshire on the time of the Queen’s coronation in 1953.
John was an progressive farmer, championed the significance of agriculture to the economic system, and at all times believed agricultural land ought to produce as a lot meals as doable.
Ever since he visited Glasgow within the Nineteen Thirties, when he noticed youngsters with ricketts whereas they had been pouring milk down the drain in Aberdeenshire, he believed in a deliberate economic system and thus turned fascinated about politics.
He was elected Labour MP for Enfield East in 1959, and acquired Harold’s Park Farm within the village of Nazeing, 10 miles from his constituency, the place he and his spouse, Jeannie, loved entertaining tons of of his constituents.
John was parliamentary secretary on the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Meals within the Labour authorities of 1964-1970, the place his farming data was desperately wanted.
He turned chairman of the Forestry Fee and later went into the Home of Lords to be a working peer, talking about agriculture.
John (whose elder brother Maitland was the person behind the Mackie’s ice cream enterprise), was succeeded at Harold’s Park by his son, George, alongside along with his spouse, Catherine MacLeod.
George shortly realised the necessity to diversify on the 200ha farm, establishing a profitable do-it-yourself livery yard, and rising Christmas bushes.
George died in 2020 and, since then, Catherine and their son, Hector, have been operating the farm. “I bear in mind John very properly,” says Catherine.
“He beloved farming and beloved dwelling on the farm. He remained fascinated about new concepts all his life. He enthusiastically planted bushes and it was becoming that when he died his coffin was produced from oak grown on Harold’s Park.”
Viscount Bledisloe
Charles Bathurst, the first Viscount Bledisloe, was parliamentary secretary to the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries (1924-1928) and had shut ties with the Royal Agricultural School (RAC) at Cirencester, which is now the Royal Agricultural College (RAU).
He was born in 1867 and died in 1958, 5 years after the Queen’s coronation.
Charles was a pupil at RAC and went on to turn out to be chairman of the faculty’s governing council from 1919-1929, steering the establishment throughout a tough post-war interval.
RAU remembers him to today, by awarding the Bledisloe Medal for agricultural excellence every year. One of many major pupil lodging can also be named after the viscount.
In 1935, Charles was made Viscount Bledisloe for his providers as governor-general of New Zealand.
He married Bertha Susan and so they had three youngsters: Benjamin Ludlow (2nd Viscount Bledisloe), Ursula Mary and Henry Charles Hiley.
The Bathursts personal Lydney Park Property, about 1,200ha of land between Gloucester and Chepstow within the Forest of Dean, the place Gavin Inexperienced has been working since 1986 and is now the property supervisor.
Gavin says Charles was eager on agriculture, and farming stays an necessary a part of the property at the moment.
“We’re milking 850 cows on a grass-based system, twice a day. We’ve had beef, sheep and arable crops through the years, however now it’s all grass and dairy.
“Within the time since I’ve been right here we’ve targeting the dairy. The milking platform the cows are on is round 750 acres after which there’s one other 500 acres of youngstock and silage floor,” he says.
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