The Family Farming History

Five generations and still going strong!

The family farming history dates back to the late 19th century when Abel Bowles farmed nearby Parsonage Farm at Conkwell. His son Herbert George was born in 1879 and his business career started when he became Landlord of the Seven Stars in Winsley.  Herb’s popular brews quenched the miner’s thirsts through those difficult years of the Great War. In 1915 he bought Church Farm.

The village in those days only comprised of the area immediately surrounding the pub and the church, but everyone was part of the farming calender and the farm produced fresh milk, meat, eggs and vegetables for the village. In 1954, Herb’s son Bert moved back to Parsonage Farm.

In those post war years the country was in the grip of food rationing, and it is interesting to plot how government pressures to maximise food production to feed a hungry nation started to change the way of farming.

The Present

Bert and his family have expanded the area farmed which now includes Church Farm, Hartley Farm and Ivy House Farm at Beckington. Again, farming policies have moved with the times and ‘diversification’  has become the order of the day, and other ventures have begun. Steve and Trish own and run ‘Church Farm Country Cottages’ along side their sheep farm, while Geoff and Kim produce the popular ‘Ivy House Farm’ range of dairy products from their organic herd of Jersey cows. The most recent venture, the farm shop at Hartley, aims to bring the family produce together as well as expanding its own production with vegetables, eggs, beef & pork.

The Future

Time however doesn’t stand still, and the next generation are now beginning to pick up the reins. Tom has opened the farm shop at Hartley Farm and it looks as if the wheel has turned  full circle, as environmental factors coupled with expensive transport has meant that we are again looking at a more local and sustainable way to produce our food. The farm is managed very much with the local market in mind and his farm shop is stocked with seasonal produce grown on the farm, or sourced as locally as possible and produced with quality in mind rather than quantity.