Through Adversity to the Stars

ISSUE 9 • SUMMER 2019 Inside P2-3 IS THERE A FUTURE FOR HILL FARMERS? P1 AND 4 REMEMBERED – ALL AIRMEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE VALLEY PHOTOGRAPH: CHRISTOPHER WARD THROUGH ADVERSITY TO THE STARS P5 FIFTY YEARS ON, FORMER Neil Braidwood speaks to Tim Willbond, the man behind the airmen’s CVE DIRECTOR CHRISTOPHER WARD STILL FEELS BLESSED memorial in the College Valley HE Cheviot Hills can be treacherous, be awarded the Dickin Medal for Gallantry. In especially when the weather closes in, and 1994, the then Lord Lieutenant Matthew Ridley theT clouds shroud the peaks, it is not just walkers contacted Station Commander Tim Willbond at who have to be careful. During the Second World nearby RAF Boulmer to consult on whether he War, 19 aircraft crashed on the mountain tops, should agree to restore the cairn on Cheviot. often with fatal consequences. “I suggested that a larger memorial might be Primitive navigation systems, pilot error and more appropriate, recognising not only the B17 inexperience all played their part in why so many crash, but the other incidents that had taken P6 THE CASE FOR HEATHER aircraft came to grief. Those tragedies went place during the war”, Tim recalls. The idea was BURNING IN THE VALLEY unmarked until 1968 when a group of choir boys agreed on, and a substantial slate memorial was (known as The Reivers), from Alnwick built a erected in the College Valley by airmen from cairn on Cheviot (the highest summit), to mark RAF Boulmer and a dedication ceremony took the crash site of a US B17 Flying Fortress bomber. place in May 1995. It was attended by the Duke On that occasion, although two airmen died, of Gloucester as well as three survivors from the local shepherds John Dagg, along with his collie crashes and their families; two of whom were Sheila, and Frank Moscrop, rescued four from from the B17 crash. death by exposure. Tim then moved away, returning to The other three had exited at the front of the Northumberland in 2014. On visiting the P8 THE COLLEGE VALLEY IS A MAGICAL PLACE TO aircraft and made their way to Mounthooly farm. memorial in the College Valley, he was GET MARRIED Both shepherds were awarded the British Empire Medal and Sheila became the first civilian dog to continued on page 4 WELCOME TO COLLEGE VALLEY THE FUTURE OF SHEEP IN THE UPLANDS AYBE IT is just the consequence of advancing age, but in my opinion Dominic Naylor finds reason to be the College Valley grows in beauty. The stark Sitka blocks of the 1960s optimistic for hill farmers in the UK andM 1970s continue to be harvested and replaced with softer woods, more diverse in species and easier on the landscape. The ‘wilderness’ areas above Mounthooly established 20 years ago, mature into wonderful landscape … support those farmers, for example upland features. Many parts of the estate continue to recover from intense, year- sheep farmers, whose profit margins are more round grazing pressure of the past. Stephen continues to maintain and likely“ to be small but whose contribution to rural improve infrastructure such as tracks, buildings and fences, and even the old life and the maintenance of iconic landscapes pele tower at Hethpool was repaired last year. This should prove very handy is immense.” should any Scotsmen arrive to threaten any of Bill’s sheep or to steal his So said the Secretary of State for the womenfolk. Environment, Michael Gove, in a speech While the College Valley remains a beautiful and revitalising place to at the Oxford farming conference in 2017, be, much of the trading environment has never seemed so uncertain. The and while the hill farmer in me jumped livestock enterprises of our farmers are completely dependent on trading for joy at this belated official recognition terms (tariffs and exchange rates) and no one has much idea how these of the importance of our uplands and also will shape in the near term. On the other hand, most of us are getting our the sheep which have fashioned them, minds around the fact that future government payments are likely to be the speech had an air of the museum made only for the supply of ‘public goods’ (conservation, public access and curator about it. Indeed, that’s how the flood prevention, for example), although we are a long way from learning US Ambassador Woody Johnson recently whether these will be sufficient described our British farming methods: to sustain the rural economy of “a museum of agriculture.” What the today. Dominic Naylor, the very uplands must never become is a Beamish- experienced general manager of type museum to upland farming. To have the neighbouring Lilburn estate, any future, upland sheep farming and the discusses some of these issues in communities it has created must be alive, this newsletter. vibrant and most of all, relevant. Whether you agree or The Brexit decision and Defra’s current disagree with him, Secretary opinion that all things to do with the of State Michael Gove has Common Agriculture Policy are bad, has been remarkably clear and placed UK agriculture at a crossroads. consistent in his objectives for Yet not any old crossroads but a spaghetti the English countryside. Such junction. The fragile nature of hill farming traits are not always seen further means that our next turning could have down in his organisation: like ramifications which will be felt in the many farming businesses, the uplands for centuries to come, and could in estate is owed many thousands fact sound the death knell of sheep farming of pounds of Stewardship in the hills and cause the demise of the payments for conservation work aesthetic upland landscape it has created. which has been completed as Currently, however, the hills are alive, but contracted. On another issue, not, sadly, with the sound of music or lambs the Government’s attitude to bleating for that matter, but with various the burning of heather seems to stakeholders claiming authority of this green change with the seasons and is causing considerable trouble on the ground as and pleasant land. It is for some of them discussed in Colin Matheson’s article. however, far too green and not very pleasant. More positively, tight supply and demand combined with a slightly weaker pound has boosted timber profits to some of their highest in living memory. LIVELIHOOD Furthermore, the College Valley board strongly believes that our philosophy For centuries sheep in the uplands have is well aligned with developing government policy. Without being in any provided food, clothing and a livelihood for way complacent, we think we are well-placed to survive to continue to look those communities involved. The landscape after the Valley so that we can continue with our conservation work and to on which they live has yielded fuel in the welcome walkers and riders, and of course, our holiday cottage and bunk form of peat and wood and timber for house guests. building homesteads. Indeed, the wealth of the nation was once so intertwined with John Baker-Cresswell, Director, sheep farming that Edward 3rd ordered the College Valley Estates Lord Chancellor to sit on a woolsack while WWW.COLLEGE-VALLEY.CO.UK PAGE 02 NEWSLETTER OF THE COLLEGE VALLEY ESTATE ISSUE 9 • SUMMER 2019 THE FUTURE OF SHEEP IN THE UPLANDS communal ownership to them, as society’s 2050 should make any prospecting farmer lung if nothing else. This newly recognised jump for joy. Yet the ether is awash with role as a cache for the nation’s natural discussions on what we eat and how capital, whether it be carbon sequestration we produce it. The oxymoron which is or the retention of water to prevent the meat-free burger is fast becoming lowland flooding, all needs managing and mainstream. So much so, in fact, that some has been unwittingly managed for centuries of the world’s largest meat processors have by sustainable numbers of sheep grazing the bought substantial stakes in these plant- land. This sense of communal ‘ownership’ based businesses. However, like the debate has been validated, one might argue, by the over the measurement of carbon dioxide enormous sums of financial subsidy, paid by and methane emissions from ruminants the taxpayer to British agriculture since the and the flawed science which underpins 1950s. The rights and wrongs of the CAP it, the lid of the petri dish which grows are not for detailed discussion here, but let these Frankenstein burgers has been lifted us be in no doubt as to the socio/economic to reveal an unsustainable energy cost benefits they have provided: food deflation to their creation. What better source of for the past seven decades. naturally produced protein than nature’s true ‘up-cyclers’, sheep or cows. No other DIET animal will graze the rank tussocky grasses This ‘cheap food’ policy has lowered our of the uplands. Neither will anything household expenditure on food from 30 else grow up there, believe us we’ve tried per cent down to 8 per cent in 70 years and it and since human cecums no longer we all say ‘amen’ to that. We have become perform that function what better way to much wealthier than our grandparents and harvest our dietary protein and protect the the purchase of a 50” television, two cars environment at the same time. and one foreign holiday a year are seen as a Hill farmers have, by their nature, been benchmark of success. However, there have reticent in joining the debate over the also been some unintended consequences. future of the land which generations of We rarely die from infectious diseases in their families have cared for.

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