Sheep grazing the fields to the east of the village.
Photograph: Colin Wootton
Richard Fonge writes:
November has been mild and with very little wind and no rain so far, it has meant that it has allowed the sowing of the winter corn to progress with most farmers in the area having now caught up with their seasonal work. Beans have been direct drilled in the fields up the concrete road before the bridge.
As can be seen from the news, there is much unrest within the farming community with threats of direct action. Land is a precious commodity, especially on our small island where there is a need to feed an expanding population, to house people, to conserve, to provide recreational use and to provide green energy. Farming is a generational industry with large estates and owner occupied farms going back many years and centuries in many cases.
In our Parish we have land owned by an Oxford college stretching over to Weston. One tenant grazing with sheep the pasture land, another tenant growing crops up the concrete road and beyond. The Oxford and Cambridge colleges have always been large landowners with their land farmed by tenants.
On the southern edge of the Parish we have a privately owned estate mostly farmed in hand. The other land surrounding the village is privately owned by various farmers, all bringing a diversity of land management. So we have grazing pastures, arable and conservation managed land all within our parish, and this is replicated across our county and beyond. We also have many woods, copses and railway embankments for our fauna, flora and wildlife. Today land managers and farmers are aided by grants to enhance conservation and biodiversity and much sound advice is available to them and it is in their nature to look after their land and protect the landscape. This is not something new as for centuries it was the gamekeeper on the estate or farm who managed the conservation along with his job of maintaining field sports with great skill. Always keeping a balance, as I witnessed when working for a large estate in the late seventies, and they still do today because their understanding of the countryside has been often passed down through generations, as has the estate.
Farmers have always been innovative, and welcoming to new entrants and ideas and along with their love of the land they feel betrayed by politicians of all parties at times who fail to see and understand the rural life and what it brings to the benefit of the nation.
A countryman was asked how he felt one morning. Reply. “Up and down like the sparrows”.
Richard Fonge
