Agriculture on the Nottinghamshire Wolds: Interviewee 09: Geoff Brooks

	Geoff was born in 1934 at Manor Farm in the middle of the village of Widmerpool. His father had a mixed farm there. Geoff still farms at Manor Farm, but it has been relocated outside the village.
Farmhouse: It was a lovely old farmhouse, and I have some very happy memories of fifty-five years living there. But the earliest time was, of course, before there was either electricity or mains water. And I'm thinking back to the start of the war years, when we had evacuees and quite a large family as well. And we all lived in the there with no water and one inside toilet and one outside toilet - and the problems as you can well imagine of no water. And the upstairs - the loo in the house - used to catch the water off the roof. And so you really did pray for not a dry summer. And now there's a vast change when everybody expects ensuites to every room - and all the rest of it. But we had one toilet in the house and one outside and obviously really no sort of bathroom as such. And again earliest memories of - were having a bath in the tin bath by the fire. And the water was boiled in the old boiler, again at the side of the kitchen range. And it was sort of a ritual where - and also you didn't have the luxury of having fresh water every time, because you had to have a bucket of hot water either to two or three that had been in the bath before you. But when you are only reliant on the well outside, a lot of these things that everybody thinks would never happen, it was the only way you could do it.	Manor Farm, Widmerpool in 1961
	Buying Manor Farm from the Widmerpool Estate: 1959 was the year my father died. And the Estate had changed hands then and it was owned by the Bristol Estates. And they'd just come to my father to agree little bits of modernisation of the farm, and that we were to get a six bay steel and asbestos Dutch barn. And they'd started to construct the barn when my father died. And they continued to finish the Dutch barn. But then - as he was the tenant and I wasn't - then I was given notice to sell. Because in the meantime, I think Lord Eggremont - I think, was the head of the Bristol Estates - he equally had died, and they were then, heavy death duties - penalties. And Widmerpool was the last estate they'd bought and was obviously going to be the first one that they were going to sell. And so I got notice to quit because they were going to sell it with vacant possession. With maybe luck - I was only twenty-four at the time - and with help, I was able to buy the farm from the Estate, And this was really the first farm that was broken off the Estate. I think that Harts had been sold - the Harts farm - but they'd sort of not been made official, that that had gone off the Estate, whereas mine was.
Stacks: Again going back to the earliest memories, when we used to have to make a lot of hay because all the cows, and obviously the horses and the sheep, were fed hay, there used to seem to be endless summers - very different from now unless one's imagination or memories change - but seemed to be endless summers. And I used to, even from maybe nine and ten, be involved in taking the horses back to the field with the empty drays for the men to fill, and loose hay being stacked and coming up an elevator. And if you were on the stack, and it was hot, you'd be sinking down nearly up to your waist and very, very, very hard work… And we used to stack in the stack yard. And as regards the corn, obviously it was all done with a binder. And then the sheaves were stacked. And I remember another little thing, that when Russell, who was the evacuee, and he'd left school from Widmerpool at fourteen, and because he came from Yarmouth, he suggested to my father that we stacked in the Norfolk fashion, which was the rounded ends, which was a different thing. And so Russell found himself, very, very, very young, being the stacker at about sixteen, and producing very good Norfolk-style stacks… And I can remember another thing that would - we seemed to go through - you'd do harvest, and when you'd finished all the stacks, then you'd start thatching, which would probably take another month or six weeks. And then obviously, soon after, you'd start to thrash your stack, when you needed the corn or you needed whatever it was. And I can remember equally,: I used to hate going up the ladders, because in no time, as you got the stacks up, they were invaded by rats. And you'd be on the ladder, leaning on the roof, and you could hear the rats all rustling underneath - and I used to hate that.
	The midden: It was in the middle of the old cattle yard. And all winter long the cows would be mucked out with a barrow, with a shovel. And an ordinary barrow and the muck would be wheeled up a plank and tipped off at the top of the heap. And you'd have a massive heap there all winter. Then when spring came and the ground was drier, …the horses would be used to take the muck out of the yard, into either a muck heap in the field for it to rot, or into little heaps and spread. And those carts - hard work would be to put a ton on - a horse would have a ton on. A two wheeled cart, very different from now, where we're all looking at huge spreaders, taking twelve/fifteen tons at a time out.
Piglets: There was always six or eight sort of pigs that we kept for breeding as well - a real typical traditional mixed farm in this area. They were all sold at eight weeks old - when they were weaned at eight week. Traditionally that was the sort of age in those days. And we took them to Nottingham market in a horse and cart with a net over the top. And they were sold by auction in Nottingham market. And a pony used to trot all the way from Widmerpool to Nottingham market and back every Saturday with pigs on… I remember as a very small child sitting on a board on the top of the net and sort of squealing eight week old pigs all underneath on the way to Nottingham market. The only one that I ever had escape - funnily enough was years later. And we had an old Ford van - long before M.O.Ts - and this was a very, very old van. And we'd had - the farm had been closed with swine fever. And so these pigs weren't eight weeks old. They were about twelve to fourteen - big strong pigs. And we put a lot in the van. And I drove father, sitting at the side of me. And we got to where there used to be the old Globe Cinema, just over Trent Bridge. And the policeman in front put his hand up and I applied the brakes. And the van was so old and awful, it stopped dead. All the pigs shot to the back of the van, burst the doors open, and got out on Trent Bridge. It was absolute mayhem. And the last pig - some went down Victoria Embankment, and they were down Arkwright Street - and the last pig was caught in front of the Trent Bridge Cricket Ground. And there was mayhem because the traffic was stopped in every direction while we caught all these pigs. And that was the last time that I remember we had pigs go to Nottingham market.
Rabbits: Widmerpool land, certainly in those years, was all sort of - it was all very poor, very poor land. Obviously, sort of 95% of Widmerpool Estate was permanent grass. And the other thing that, from those early years, I remember was the thousands and thousands of rabbits. The place was absolutely overcome with rabbits. And there is one very good story that - I mean is a true one that - on one day's shooting, they shot nine hundred and ninety rabbits. And when Major Robertson, they did the count - they had the old pony and cart following the shoot - and he said there was nine hundred and nine, he sent one of the gamekeepers to get ten. So that they'd got the thousand rabbits on the day. But thousands of rabbits - this farm was absolutely overrun. …It was only shooting and of course there was ferreting as well. But they made no real impact into that sort of number at all. Everywhere - and of course the amount that they would eat in those days was considerable. If you think about it now, everybody gets upset if there's many rabbits come off the railway line onto crops and things like that. But we were overrun - totally overrun with rabbits. Amazing because at Christmas time - very different when you think that we used to have our own - the gamekeeper from the estate was given to the farmer - …one day before Christmas, to go round the estate catching rabbits for presents - and I remember that. When we think that a rabbit was worth three shillings, it was a lot of money. But all the farm staff and the postman and everybody else were given a rabbit. I mean they must have been sick of the sight of rabbit because they'd get one from us and from the Wadkins. And every farmer in the village would give the postman a rabbit. But that's what we used - that was the Christmas presents.
Milk in churns: Early on, the milk was taken by pony to Widmerpool Station, in 17 gallon churns. Milked by hand right up until after I - well a few years after I left school. It was all milked by hand, sitting on a stool in the morning. And I remember when it was harvest time, probably Russell, who was the evacuee, and one other, would be sent back to probably milk forty by hand - long, long, long time to milk forty by hand with two people. But the milk went to Widmerpool Station, from there either into Nottingham, or one time, as I understand it, it went to London from Widmerpool, but all 17 gallon churns.
	Animal health: Very quickly after the war, things started to change, i.e. in like animal health and the human health if you like, in the fact that first of all cattle were tested for TB. And there was the eradication programme to get the country's cattle free of TB. And in the early years, there was a tremendous amount of cattle that failed the TB test. And when all that was gone through and the country was assumed to be TB free, then they started on brucellosis. And the brucellosis was, I can again remember we'd have, what we used to call a brucellosis store, which is contagious abortion. And we'd probably have it on a bad year. One year in particular, I remember, half the herd aborted. Enormous loss to farmers - them that were already struggling for income - because you wouldn't have a live calf; and a cow that aborted at usually something like six to seven months would never make the amount of milk that a cow that had had a rest and would calve to full time. So you'd got reduced milk yields; you'd got a dead calf. And you'd got also, which is amazing when one looks back, the amount of brucellosis that nearly all the farmers and farm workers weren't affected. But there's a lesson in all of that is… that, more and more and more, we're less immune to all sorts of diseases than we were then.
Horse breeding: I'd always had horses from a very early age. And we'd always bred horses. And when the Shires went out, and were replaced by the tractor, we bred with two or three Shire mares to a thoroughbred stallion, and produced a sort of a heavyweight hunter type of horse of which, and I'd always ridden ever since I was - I could walk, I'd ridden. And so I'd always had a horse or two about and always been, if you like, very horse-minded. And in 1972, I think it was, I bought a stallion from Ireland, a palomino stallion, and he was - it was a little bit of nonsense I think, the Roy Rogers bit was coming into it somewhere - he was the largest registered palomino in Europe. And I bought him in Ireland, and he became extremely well known. And to start with I covered mares locally with him - just as a bit of a thing. And then the stud got bigger, And in the end when - I had four stallions at stud in the end. But we were one of the very first people also that did AI in horses (artificial insemination). And we were sort of experimenting with the local vet way before AI was thought of as being something you could do with horses. And taking semen from a seventeen three stallion, that wasn't in any way trained, was a very hairy job, I can promise you - a very dangerous job. But we did, and we were one of the people that - right up to day, Twin Callan - that's produced the two foals that have been cloned - we were working with Twin Callan in 1970 on AI in horses. So in a funny sort of way, although I no longer have a stud …that was the start of AI in horses really. Move of farm out of the village: We moved up here in 1988; I got planning permission to develop the yard because obviously you couldn't - you can't work a busy farm in the middle of a village now - you just cannot from any point of view. If it was a grain farm or anything else, because there's, as we all know, the objections for grain driers or cattle smells or noise or anything else. So I got planning permission to develop the farm down there and to build this.	Manor Farm Willoughby Lane, Widmerpool New Farmhouse
Black Sheep Devon Cattle	Rare breed animals: Y I went down to Devon and went round the rare breeds survival trust farm at - down on the Moors there, Devon Moors. And I saw these sheep, which I'd never seen before, the Zwatblest. And I was speaking to the chappie that runs it. And he was one of the first three that imported these sheep from Holland. And I thought a - a very attractive, different black sheep, white face, white feet, half a white tail. Many things attracted me, very very docile and friendly and will actually come up to you and want to be friendly. You can't work them with a dog. A dog will be frustrated because he runs round and the sheep sort of run after the dog. And they're not easily worked with a dog. So I had three, I ask him, I had three ewes from him. And then I eventually - and a tup - and I kept them. And of course today, I've got sort of forty Zwatblest ewes and breeding ewes. And they are a most attractive breed to have. In Holland they originally had been an old-fashioned milking breed, so they made lots of milk, very good mothers. They can rear three lambs and do three lambs as well as the ordinary will do two. But the great thing is - if they are a hobby and a bit of fun - and that's what mine are, is that they are so docile and friendly. And I can go in the field, and they are not going to run out the other end. And I enjoy them. The fleeces funnily enough are worth nothing, because black wool - they don't want. So the fleeces make about 25p each and it costs me 60p to clip them. … - very much a hobby. And again if they are in the fields, in front, or anywhere round the house in a normal time, they are very attractive. And loads of people comment on them. And I love them. …not exactly a hobby, but with the live stock unit that we've got, we've now got some pedigree South Devons. And again the reasons for the South Devons …is related to the haylage as well, but we have on the farm some acres that you can't grow grass on from that point of view, and even the little paddock in front of the house and behind the house. And I've got these Devons. And in a way they've got similar qualities because they are the most docile of all the English breeds and the most docile… We've got now - we've built up till we've got nearly sixty; and that's certainly more than I intend to keep. But that's to foot and mouth, that we've got too many and can't sell some. But I can go up to them in the field and I can put my arm round them and on all them, even the great big huge bull that weighs over a ton. And I go up to him every day and sort of put my arm round him; he's a great old guy. Again because they're easy, and they're, if you like, because of the haylage that we now make. In the winter they live off any damaged bales or any that we made that's not of a quality for the horse industry. So I can justify them by - they're only eating what probably would be waste in the winter when they're housed here. And in the summer they make a very attractive piece of scenery.
Haylage: The haylage, we developed, in 1992. I think we could see that farming was changing and we were looking for diversification. And we started to produce a product called horseage, which we were contract producers; which is very similar to what we do now, but in a very small package. It only weighed 20 kilos per bale. And we started doing it. And we produced for them their export - for all that they exported - and nearly all that went from here - that we made - went to France, Switzerland, Italy, all over the world. And the horseage for the Barcelona Olympics and things like that were grown here. Then we decided that we would do something with a similar product, but under our own name. And we would go for a different market. We would go for the bigger yards and produce a bigger bale. And that's where Eurobale was started. We produced this larger bale that weighs about a hundred and fifty kilos, and we took it to one or two racing yards. Haylage wasn't used in any, hardly any racing yards, anywhere. And so we were having to persuade them to do a different - or look at a different type of product. Fortunately, that was 1993 we started, and did a very small batch of four hundred tons. And this year we will be producing nearly ten thousand tons. And we supply many of the top racing yards in this country. There are horses that have won the Grand National, the Cheltenham Gold Cup, Champion Hurdle and nearly all the Classics, that at one time or another have fed on products produced here. …We supply studs; we supply event yards; and we actually sponsor Andrew Nicholson that won Burleigh this year. We sponsor quite a few race yards and eventers and one or two show jumpers. We supply Nick Skelton and Young Goose that holds the high jump record. And so a whole variety, and what is quite surprising because we actually supply three agricultural colleges. Now you would have thought agricultural colleges would have grown their own and made their own, but we supply Brackenhurst and Caythorpe and various others. And we supply all the Met police horses in London are fed from here. We deliver to eight stables in London and even Great Scotland Yard. We pull up outside. And their horses there are interesting, because the horses in Great Scotland Yard are kept on two levels. They go up a circular ramp onto the top. And an indication of how they value the police horses in London - from controlling anything from football crowds to the anti capitalists rally - the air conditioning for the horses in Great Scotland Yard costs half a million - for the horses.	Eurobale Lorry
Farm buildings	Rural housing development: This, the contentious thing at this moment in time, because, as it happens, I'm the only person now left in Widmerpool, that was born here. There are one or two people that lived here and grew up with me: i.e. one was the old gamekeeper, that was the Hall family, that go back, if you look in the churchyard, two hundred and fifty years, I gather that the family were here. And he was a gamekeeper; and he would love to come back to Widmerpool. But of course the house prices have got absolutely astronomical. And there are also people that were born here that - youngsters that - of course when they want to get married, or anything else, there is no way they can buy a house. Houses are changing hands in Widmerpool between four and five hundred thousand pounds each, and quite regularly. There was one sold this year, which is a semi-detached bungalow - a semi-detached bungalow, for four hundred and thirty thousand. I mean there are quite a number of properties with indoor swimming pools and things like that. I think it's a great shame; that you will not create a community unless you have a cross-section of people in it. The great shame is that the people, that I feel in a way have every right to live and belong in the village, are priced out of the situation. And we're just having this thing brought up about building some affordable housing. And of course it raises all the things of - not in my back yard. That's a great disadvantage, because this idea - that there's the same sort of village community - really doesn't exist; is a different community. And that was probably bound to happen. But the argument that was put up at the last Parish Council meeting, which said, "These people wouldn't know the village, and wouldn't want to come back," is what they're saying - not the people themselves. And I think it's a great, great shame. It's to the detriment of every village that doesn't have a mixed community. If you look at our neighbours: Willoughby - got a great difference of people, from the people that work - and I mean manual workers, and all the rest of it. If you go to Wysall, there they've got a small little development of Rural Housing Trust. People that live in that, and indeed the present councillor that represents, not only Rushcliffe, but was elected to the County Council at the recent council elections, John Cottee, started in those Rural Housing Trust houses. And that's what it should be - where somebody can make a start.
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