Bedfordshire Archives Service Catalogue
  • Reference
    Z1205/186
  • Title
    Male. Tenant farmer. Onion-growing specialist. b. 06.09.1938 SIDE A (00 mins)Born at Lakes Farm, Cardington, in the Victorian house now pulled down. 4 children. Father came down from the Clyde Valley, Scotland, and too the tenancy of Chapel Farm, Cardington. After a few years he also took on the tenancy of Lakes Farm. Both tenancies with Whitbread Estate. Both Father's and Mother's families were farmers, going back to 1700, in Scotland. Maternal grandmother came to live with the family at Lakes Farm, after her husband died. Paternal grandmother lived with Father before he was married, at Chapel Farm. After his marriage her daughter looked after her there. All lived long lives. (05 mins)Father came down in 1920s during the Depression. The price of barley then was so low that no one could make a profit out of farming. He reared pigs with it. It wasn't until the 1930s that agriculture started to become more profitable. Father developed the horticultural side of farming, because of the high population conurbations around Bedfordshire. Brussel sprout production was the mainstay of Bedfordshire horticulture. Onions were grown on the lighter lands round Biggleswade and Sandy in the 1920s and 1930s, after expenditure on irrigation. (10 mins)His Father used to employ 18 men, now he (his son) employs two men and himself and his son. A neighbouring farm used to employ 80 men, in horticulture. No only one is employed, because of mechanisation. Father also bred shire horses. He (the son) bred pigs until the 1950s. Kept beef herd until the late 1960s. Now grows crops such as bean or peas, oils seed rape and winter wheat but the intensive crop is red onions. He is not the main supplier in the country to Sainsbury's supermarkets. He also does plant breeding for sprouts. After school, he attended the Moulton Institute of Agriculture for a year. Since then he had kept up-to-date through reading with scientific developments. He is a member of several national committees and currently Chairman of the Onion Research and Development Committee. Cereal crop competition, world-wide, from the prairies of America and the Ukraine. Competition in onions from Poland or Holland. Enormous and diverse problems in agriculture. (20 mins)He has a passion for growing onions. Copeland District Smallholders Society, a tenant of the County Council, formed in 1909. (25 mins)Father bought redundant First World War wooden hutments and allowed tramps (wondering homeless men) to stay there in return for some seasonal labouring work on the fields, throughout his life. Cardington in the 1930s and 1940s had its own baker and undertaker, cobblers, smithy, carpenters - self-sufficient and independent from Bedford. (30 mins)Two chapels and a Church of England church. (32 mins)End of Side A SIDE B (00 mins)His family attended the Bunyan Meeting - the Congregational Baptist church in Bedford - because it was the nearest to a Scottish Presbyterian church. He, when he married, joined his wife in attending the Church of England. (05 mins)The role of the National Agricultural Advisory Service in encouraging maximum production in British farming, post-Second World War. Current disorientation of British farmers now that farming is no longer profitable and it seemed unlikely that their sons will take over from. (10 mins)Farmers who own their own farms can sell off their farms and leave farming. Those, like him, who are tenants, have fewer options, apart from dying off. Currently Chairman of Bedfordshire Growers. Growth of Bedford town outwards towards Cardington. (15 mins)Cardington now occupied mainly by those who commute to work elsewhere. Village school and shops have disappeared but there is a good community spirit. (20 mins)End of Side B Original Interview 50 mins.
  • Date free text
    10 January 2003
  • Production date
    From: 1935 To: 2003
  • Reference
  • Level of description
    item
Hierarchy browser