Agriculture on the Nottinghamshire Wolds: Interviewee 03: Roger Twidale

Roger was born in 1937 at Mansfield in the north of Nottinghamshire. In 1962 he bought North Lodge Farm at Widmerpool where he is still farming. Extracts of a reminiscence interview appear below. Illustrative photographs were taken by Roger in 2001
North Lodge Farmhouse Northside showing limestone.	Farm purchase: When I was twenty-fourish, my wife and I decided to get married and to go out on our own with a farm. To that end, we borrowed an enormous amount of money and bought North Lodge where we are today... The farm was a hundred and seventy acres and it cost eighteen thousand, one hundred pounds - which doesn't sound much money today, but it seemed an awful lot to me because I was borrowing most of it.
Widmerpool Hall Estate: The farm was part of the Widmerpool Estate, which was owned by the Robertson family for about a hundred years, I think they bought it in the early part of the nineteenth century. They were industrialists and they injected quite a lot of money into the estate. Then the last Robertson died in 1924, I think it was - and the estate was eventually sold and broken up in 1926. This was an estate of just over four thousand acres, principally in Widmerpool, but also in Keyworth and Stanton on the Wolds and Hickling. The farmhouse is the original farmhouse that was here when we arrived. It is built of the local stone, which was quarried from the drive-side, we believe.	House yard
Roger and his wife, Judy.	Soil drainage and fertility: The farm was not really big enough to generate sufficient income for us. And so I augmented the income by managing an agricultural land drainage company, which was quite a useful experience for managing this wolds clay - and perhaps more of that later. But it's interesting, talking about wolds clay, to reflect on the changing values of land. After the war, the sand land was considered just rabbit land and really worth very little, but today, with irrigation and chemical fertilizers, it is considered some of the most valuable land in the county - because it is able to grow carrots and potatoes and sugar beet and all the high return crops; whereas we on the Wolds clay, which is inherently more fertile, have many limitations put on us. We grow grass very well, and we grow cereals, but we cannot grow these other root crops.
Diversification: Over the years I've always been - perhaps I'm an anxious character - but I've always been concerned about the profitability from farming, which in fact has been good - perhaps post war particularly and during the Second World War. But before that, it really was a Cinderella industry. It might be yet again - we'll look at that - but history has a habit of repeating itself, and I've been worried about that. So, over the years, we have diversified somewhat. In 1979 I bought into an educational games company, which was in receivership and is Keyworth-based, and it is known as Orchard Toys... I am now chairman of that company, and in these more difficult times I'm jolly pleased that I am. We also rent grazing for horses and ponies, which is on some grass that we can't plough - so that's another diversification. My son...has established a business on one of my farms, manufacturing fish baits - sort of breadcrumbs, hemp seed and that sort of thing. So there's another diversification for the family.	North Lodge from the south.
Pond "developed" in 1996.	Farm management: We're on the bolder clays, which it's imperative to be well drained. When we came here - over the years - we've spent quite a lot of time and money on land drainage. We've been doing it at two chain intervals, that's forty metres, with pipes, plastic or clay; we've gravel filled to within fifty inches of the surface; and they intercept the greatest fall of the land. Then we use, what we call, a mole plough, behind the tractor, every six years - which helps the movement of water through this impermeable clay. Without that sort of land drainage, we wouldn't be able to farm, certainly not profitably. And it was, I think it was, very imaginative of the Labour Government after the Second World War, to give such large grants towards land drainage at that time. There are none now, by the way. They finished some ten years ago.
Future of Farming: My view on the future of farming perhaps are a little jaundiced. But with regard to the CAP, as a farmer, in principle I'm fairly happy about that, because as a political lobby the farming in this country is very limited. The fact that, in France and Germany in particular, in countries like Greece and Spain, the amount of people involved in agriculture is very much higher. So their political influence is very much greater. We, I as a British farmer, benefit from that somewhat. But I don't like the present system very much. A simpler system would be preferred. Bureaucracy in many areas, I'm sure, is getting greater all the time; which is very non-productive, in my view. So we would like a simpler system. I would like the CAP still there. The Countryside Stewardship Scheme:: we've looked at and we don't think there's anything in it for us. That isn't to say, it isn't a good scheme. I think it probably is. But we, over the years, have spent a great deal of time and money on wild life conservation. Indeed, I was, and still am, involved with FWAG. And I've been the chairman and I am currently treasurer of the Notts County FWAG. I was there right at the beginning. So we've been involved with conservation over many years. We've established ponds and planted trees and patched up hedges. We've got owl boxes and other boxes - all sorts of things we do to try and enhance the wildlife.	Fairham Wood, which was conifers and has been planted with a mixture of trees since 1987.
Drilling.	New cultivator.
Grain store and loader.	Interior of grain store.
For a recording: press the play button audio