M tells his life on farms, working with cattle and showing them across the country. I went to school when I was five at Drayton, and then from that school I went to Hellesdon Firside at 11 years old. I spent three years there and left at 14 years. While I was at school I […]
Agriculture & Farming
A farming heritage leads to a life in estate management (1945-1996)
Martin qualified as a chartered auctioneer and estate agent, coming from a farming background He joined Savills and moved to Norfolk as a young man and now enjoys retirement. He is happy to have been able to use to the best of his ability the talents he was born with and the agricultural inheritance he […]
A Foulsham Farmer (1930s-1980s)
Eric was a farmer born and bred, although he had to work in Barclay’s Bank for some of his life! I was born at Bates Moor Farm, Foulsham. My Great Grandfather went there in 1851. It went out of the family for a number of years then my uncle bought it and my father went […]
A Life on a Norfolk Farm (1937-2008)
Stanley describes his life working with horses, hedging and ditching and driving tractors on Norfolk farms. Starting work, making a stand and losing a pork chop I started work when I was 14. I left school on the Friday night and started work on the Monday. It was harvest time and there were about 14 […]
A life on the land (1948-2005)
Gordon didn’t want to go into carpentry as a young man. He said ‘Farming is what I love and what I want to do’ and stayed on the land all his working life. The little farm at Sisland I lived in Loddon and when I came home from school, I used to get on my […]
A lifetime on the farm (1938-2021)
Jack tells us about his life growing up in Crownthorpe on the farm originally part of the Kimberley Estate, which he took over from his father and still works today. I was born in 1938 in Fressingfield in Suffolk and we moved to where we are now in 1939, so I have lived here for […]
A Neatishead farm boy (1950s-2018)
John’s mother ran the village shop in Neatishead for over forty years, it was a meeting place for all the locals and farm workers. John was born in the room above the shop. Growing up above the shop My childhood was spent in Neatishead where my mother ran the village shop and my father had […]
A working life in farming (1930s-1997)
Richard describes his progression from agricultural college to Farm Manager before finally becoming an Animal Health Inspector for Norfolk County Council. My first employment was at the age of ten. During the autumn I would come out of school in Banham and go down to the cider works where the apples were being ground up […]
Attitudes have changed (1935-2018)
The Reverend Jane speaks about her life: wartime, on a farm, horses, working for the church, and being ordained as one of the first Church of England women priests. Early life and the War I was born in Southern Rhodesia. My father had fought in the First World War and all soldiers could have some […]
Changing times in farming (1930s-2018)
Henry is a Norfolk farmer whose ancestors came from Scotland to Norfolk. He talks about his working life and the changes which have occurred since his family arrived on the marshes. The early days: farmers move from Scotland to Norfolk How it started was predominantly my predecessors came to Norfolk and parts of Suffolk from […]