Victorian Farm BBC series set on the Acton Scott estate

[JoceAndChris]

And you've got an abbatoir just down the hill (it's near the station), so not too long and stressful a trip. What are you waiting for? Home made Lincolnshire sausages when I come to visit, please.

Are you God? Or just omniscient?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

And you've got an abbatoir just down the hill (it's near the station), so not too long and stressful a trip. What are you waiting for? Home made Lincolnshire sausages when I come to visit, please.

Are you God? Or just omniscient?

I was once a church architect in your town (though I must have passed it many times, I have no recollection of your house)

 

[JoceAndChris]

Goodness! So you must know St W very well. It is a pity that you could not have had a greater impact on this town. Many people feel it should be flooded with just the spire of St W poking out. That would give me a better view.

I will be researching pig keeping and sausage recipes with excited anticipation of your visit.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Goodness! So you must know St W's very well. It is a pity that you could not have had a greater impact on this town. Many people feel it should be flooded with just the spire of St W poking out. That would give me a better view.

You could not have passed my house without wandering round the fields, but this may not be out of chararacter for you. And you would not have seen it, because it was hidden from view.

I will be researching pig keeping and sausage recipes with excited anticipation of your visit.

It's an oddly horrid town in places, isn't it? I think it's something to do with being surrounded by hills on every side - there's no incentive to assume that you won't actually fall of the edge of the world if you go beyond.

St W's was one we looked after (though I did hardly anything there - being busiest with Sleaford at the time - and must also disclaim any responsibility for the new internal porch)

I've seen your house now and it does look very curious - a different projecting bay on all four sides if I'm interpreting the picture correctly? and a very thick hedge, very close to the house, which must make it all a bit dark n damp.

(edited for anonymity)

 

[biffvernon]

some of us do not permit televisions into the house.

Very wise, but may I suggest you pop round to the neighbours or hang around a TV shop on Friday 20th February, at 8 pm (repeated on Sunday 22nd February and then available on iPlayer) and watch "A Farm for the Future", on BBC2, part of the Natural World series. There will be some clever people saying some important things.

 

[Flyfisher]

or read about one particular vision here: http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2001/aug/22/guardiansocietysupplement4.
Might be just what's needed to feed the projected 9 billion mouths on the planet by 2050.

More interesting (if you like that sort of thing) perspectives on future-gazing here: http://groups.google.com/group/paleofuture
and here: http://davidszondy.com/future/farm/future_farm.htm

 

[Penners]

Are you God? Or just omniscient?

He's both actually. Just terribly modest about it.

 

[JoceAndChris]

Biff, thank you for your kind advice that I should hang round televsion shops on dark evenings. I think the locals already find me strange enough however.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

Leasingham I don't recall so it may have been one that was looked after by someone else (we had all our spire fun at Uppingham - took the scaffold down after finishing a partial rebuild and a week later the top blew off during the morning service)

My major contribution to the architectural gaiety of Sleaford was this remodelling, extension and addition of a roof to a rather nasty 1970s church hall extension (the woodwork should have been painted moss green but clients do sometimes dig their preconceived heels in):

 

[Moo]

What an excellent building, Gareth. It reminds me of that splendid ex-school in Bull Close in Naarch.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

What an excellent building, Gareth. It reminds me of that splendid ex-school in Bull Close in Naarch.

Excessively flattering, Moo, but thank you. It was just a fairly small job (they'd originally wanted a portacabin), but done again, I'd change dozens of things - and since I left the firm and came back to Norwich half way through the construction the end result isn't quite what I'd have wanted but it's not bad.

 

[JoceAndChris]

It is the most loveliest thing in Sleaford. Well done, dear Mr Hughes.

 

[Gareth Hughes]

It is the most loveliest thing in Sleaford. Well done, dear Mr Hughes.

No, you're really tekkin t'pee now. Sleaford has many, many more worthwhile things to see (the church http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/956002, the long wall made up almost entirely of window tracery removed from the church when the Victorians restored it - which for some reason no-one on Geograph has photographed yet -, Carre's Hospital http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/960253, Cogglesford Mill http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/850654, Money's Mill http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1136835, and perhaps most of all, the Bass Maltings http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/200267)

But I suppose the great difficulty, as it so often is in Britain, is convincing the locals that what they have, (ie a couple of hours' worth of interesting architecture and townscape), though it may seem small and unremarkable on an international stage, no-one else has, and that it's therefore worth cherishing against the onslaught of McDevelopment.

 

[FamilyWiggs]

Joce

The law allows you to slaughtr your own pigs on farm (prescribed methods of course), but only if they are for your own consumption. If you feed them to anyone else (including your own family) then you commit an offence. It is ludicrous. I only know this becuase WiggsPigs are soon to start - spent the day doing a bit more fencing and can hardly move!

On biosecurity - one of the other changes after F&M (and I think prompted by the EU) was that you are no longer able to bury fallen stock on farm. They have be be collected by an approved disposal firm and then rendered/incinerated on a proper facility.

Sadly I've had occasion to use this a couple of times. A box van with a winch puils up, and chap in wellies jumps out. He lowers the back of the lorry, clambers over the carcasses already in the van from earlier colections that day to get the end of the winch, climbs down on to my land, secures my sheep and winches it in. He then drives off (no paperwork for this, but a £23 bill arrives a few weeks later). As he drives off, I notice fluid leaking form the back of the van - coming from the other carcasses.

Great biosecurity then from these new regulations - ranging from the tyres, wellies and effluent from animals, from every other farm he has visited that day.

 

[biffvernon]

I used to live near North Kyme on the Anwick Fen straight. Someone knocked my old house down last year.

 

[JoceAndChris]

[

But I suppose the great difficulty, as it so often is in Britain, is convincing the locals that what they have, (ie a couple of hours' worth of interesting architecture and townscape), though it may seem small and unremarkable on an international stage, no-one else has, and that it's therefore worth cherishing against the onslaught of McDevelopment.

Hurrah! And three cheers for little Sleaford! I will do a pilgrimage next week and say sorry to the place for having Black Thoughts about it all my life, and I will tell all the locals that they must quit their hanging around Fatty's Corner and go and see those lovely things you mention. And I wasn't "tekkin t'pee" about your delightful roof; when I am rich I hope I can have you as my architect.

The law allows you to slaughtr your own pigs on farm (prescribed methods of course), but only if they are for your own consumption. If you feed them to anyone else (including your own family) then you commit an offence. It is ludicrous. I only know this becuase WiggsPigs are soon to start - spent the day doing a bit more fencing and can hardly move!


Great biosecurity then from these new regulations - ranging from the tyres, wellies and effluent from animals, from every other farm he has visited that day.

Dear WiggsPigs (great name)

What a sad and bitter tale; I had no idea the farming regs had become so ludicrously petty. The method you describe is so much worse than just burning your own fallen stock; upsetting for the humans, deeply distressing for your living animals that would smell it (especially on a smallholding)and just rubbish biologically and ethically. It's enough to put anyone off. But I should find a smallholder's forum, and join a pressure group for better rights for farmers. And it should be completely up to your family whether or not they are prepared to eat your cooking.

Good luck with the fencing; my back cries in sympathy with you. I've got it all to come! I'm sure your Wiggs pigs will be absolutely yummy!

Biff, what b******s knocking down your old house. They should have kept it as a living testimonial of your greatness.

 

[biffvernon]

It was a weired thing. Built in 1845, a three bedroom cottage, nothing very special but nicely proportioned. I lived in it for eight years and did a lot of work on it, turning it into a very nice home and eventually sold it for a good profit. The next owners spent 15 years gradually taking it apart and then left it, open to the elements, abandoned in Marie Celeste fashion with food still in the kitchen and clothes hanging in the bedroom. A few more years and it was sold for 'redevelopment' ... and knocked down. As you go down Anwick straight towards North Kyme it's the last place on the left, opposite a white house with lots of lorries round the back. Now there is no house, just lots of trees, almost all of which I planted. It had been a wheat field in 1979. Now it is a small wood.

 

[MdB]

Sorry to hear about your old house Biff. It is strange what some people do to their own home, sounds a bit like that mole man linked to some while ago where the guy just undermined his own house until it was in a state very likely to collapse. I think our home here had a lucky escape as we found out recently that it was condemned in the 1940's. It also had a fire sometime between then and the 1970's when it was "restored" and has been lived in since.

 

[Penners]

I once sang three choruses of The Lincolnshire Poacher, so can I join in on this thread, please?

 

[Gareth Hughes]

I once sang three choruses of The Lincolnshire Poacher, so can I join in on this thread, please?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAx6QSotyg8