A passion for farming – and a lesson for others who share it
Author and poet James Crowden reviews a new book that celebrates farming the old-fashioned way. Written by tenant farmer Clive Venables, it offers inspiration to others not born into a farming family, but who yearn for a life in agriculture
FARMING in the South West has been endemic for generations. Without farmers there would be no food, no hedgerows, no fields. This current pandemic has certainly focussed people’s minds on local food production. But farmers are often short on words. To be sure they have their own home spun wisdom, but when was the last time you saw a farmer leaning on a gate looking at the view chewing on a piece of straw?
Binder twine farming is a thing of the past. But like cider making it may yet come back. As a boy in the late 1950s I watched a threshing team outside Dartmouth towards Stoke Fleming. Whole families came out armed with tea and cake, sandwiches and cider. It was a family affair. Hard work but there was an enormous sense of satisfaction getting the harvest in. There is always more to farming than meets the eye.
That is why I was so pleased to read a book called Under the Rope by a Dartmoor shepherd I had known a good few years. Clive Venables lives at Harford, a wonderful spot on the southern edge of the moor close to the river Erme just up from Ivybridge.
He became a tenant farmer there 34 years ago. But unlike most farmers, Clive was not from farming stock.
His story of how he became a farmer and the varied life he has led is inspiring to say the least. Farming needs new blood, a new generation of farmers. Many people who are rethinking their future in this lockdown could do well to read about Clive’s versatile and interesting farming life.
Clive grew up in Nottingham. His father had been in the Air Force and then worked for Raleigh where he packed bicycles for export. His mother was also in the Air Force. They met on a rifle range. What you might call a long shot. Clive’s grandfather was a blacksmith and coal miner, near Lichfield and his mother’s father, a tenant farmer on Lord Bath’s estate near Warminster. So there was a healthy mixture of farming and hard practical work. Just the ticket.
As a boy Clive took odd jobs: a paper round, delivering groceries, then petrol pumps. He fell into farming almost by accident. After two years at RAC Cirencester and countless lambing jobs he catapulted himself into Africa for a few years. Zambia to be precise. VSO. Then Lesotho. In between he milked cows at Lee Abbey in North Devon. Here Clive acquired by chance, the one vital ingredient to a successful farming life: a keen young beautiful farming wife. Gilly was fresh from Kenya. They married in 1974 and have been together for nearly 50 years. But finding a farm on sixpence wasn’t easy. Gilly’s parents worked for the Church Missionary Society where even sixpence was a luxury.
Clive’s tale is very humorous and down to earth. As tenant farmers they moved around a lot, a farm outside Cirencester, then Stowford near Ivybridge for five years, with a bit of lecturing at Bicton College thrown in. Clive is a very good communicator and gets on with tearaway lads. He has now got three of his own. Then Luckworthy Farm in North Devon on the Molland estate. And finally Hall Barn, Harford – 250 acres back again on the southern edge of Dartmoor. 1987. They had at long last landed on their feet and have been there ever since. 1,400 sheep Welsh / Suffolk Cross and Beulahs as well as 50 cows. Beef cattle.
What comes across is Clive’s good humour and Gilly’s practical down to earth catering skills learnt in Oxford. Three gallon pies and hospital corners. Being on the edge of Dartmoor has its hidden rewards. They bought the farm but now as old age beckons they rent the grass keep out and take off to the Pyrenees when it suits them, which is where Clive wrote his memoirs.
Even farmers are allowed to retire. Over his lifetime Clive has inspired many young farmers. His secret is to communicate with the next generation. This book is highly recommended, very well written, humorous and pragmatic.
Under the Rope by Clive Venables is published by Vanguard Press £8.99