Setting
scene for postwar years
A combination of a savage winter, terrible drought and then near
economic meltdown put food and farming very close to the top of
the political agenda in a grim 1947.
 The
wife's tale
At harvest time, I used to lead the horses from the fields to the
stack with wagons of wheat etc. I often wonder how we managed to
get the harvest done when I see the combines these days.
 The
farmers' tales
Mid-Norfolk farmer Alec Wales started farming at Beeston, near Dereham,
on his own account shortly after the war. “When I started
in 1946, we had no electricity or mains water at home.”
The
ploughman's tale
 As
a young man of about 24, Bob Burrows remembers ploughing one day
with a Caterpillar crawler pulling a single-furrow digger plough...
It was a wind frost. I was frozen. I had an old army greatcoat on
and my knees were wrapped in old beet pulp sacks.
 The
corn merchant's tale
A weekly market every Saturday at the Corn Hall, Norwich, was one
of the centres for trading malting barley in the decades after the
war, recalled merchant Mike Frost. He joined one of Norfolk’s
big three players...
 The
feed miller's tale
Feed merchants faced an exciting challenge to design more efficient
rations to match the rapid increase in the growth rates of farm
animals. For Rob McClean, it was also a great opportunity...
The
contractor's tale
South Norfolk threshing contractor Graham Lorne, who has lived in
Carleton Rode and Bunwell all his life, describes harvesting in
the post-war years.
 The
plant breeder's tale
Plant breeder and Norfolk farmer John Bingham was at the centre
of a technological revolution in the development of new crop varieties.
 The
potato picker's tale
"The first thing we had to do each morning was to melt the
frost with Calor gas blow lamps, then take off the rest of the soil
with pick axes," recalls Dick Melton.
The
farmworker's son's tale
 “The
water came from a pump across the yard and then she had to light
the small fire to boil the linen. We paid no rent for our house,
it came with the job – we had no running water, sewers or
electricity," recalls Mike Coates.
The
farmworker's son's tale
“The
water came from a pump across the yard and then she had to light
the small fire to boil the linen. We paid no rent for our house,
it came with the job – we had no running water, sewers or
electricity," recalls Mike Coates.
The
flour miller's tale
 When
Bryan Read joined the family business 60 years ago, there were three
flour millers in Norwich. Now, they’ve all gone, with the
last mill, Read Woodrow, closing in 1992.
The
yeoman's tale
 Specialist
cereal grower Teddy Maufe 's family have been tenants on the Earl
of Leicester's Holkham estate for almost seven decades. Today, he
has added a second string to his bow by selling beers brewed from
the farm’s quality malting barley.
The
auctioneer's tale
 Auctioneer
Michael Gamble joined one of the leading Norwich firms of chartered
surveyors, Irelands, in 1965.
By that stage, one of the country’s largest livestock markets
had moved from the heart of the city to the southern edge of Norwich.
The
enthusiast's tale
 Farming
has always been a business but it took many years for the industry
to really learn the lesson, said retired Norfolk farmer Derek Pearce.
He left school without formal qualifications and then spent the
next 20 years “getting an education” which even took
him to the Harvard.
 The
townsman's tale
From his family farm in the centre of the Broadland town of Stalham,
Nigel Wright has seen many changes over the past six decades.
 The
conservationist's tale
A key player in the evolution of a pioneering
environmental strategy, Martin George was at the centre of the so-called
Battle of the Halvergate Marshes.
The
politician's tale
 Farming
in East Anglia was booming when South Norfolk MP John (now Lord)
MacGregor was promoted to Minister of State for Agriculture in 1983.
It was also a time of “milk and wine lakes, butter and beef
mountains” and soaring spending on Europe’s Common Agricultural
Policy.
 The
manager's tale
When Frank Oldfield arrived at the Marquess of Townshend’s
Raynham estate in 1963, there were 42 staff on the payroll on 1,400
acres. Now, he farms 6,000 acres with a handful.
 The
beet grower's tale
Bill Perowne started farming on his own account at Manor Farm, South
Creake, near Fakenham, after returning from the Royal Navy in 1946.
 The
pig farmer's tale
It was the slogan of a 1960s property developer, “Location,
location, location” but it is absolutely essential for keeping
pigs outside as the Juimmy Butler, creator of the Blythburgh Free
Range Pork brand, realised.
 The
vet's tale
Farm animals, and especially dairy cows, accounted
for the overwhelming majority of practice work for a Norwich-based
vet in the 1960s. Now, family pets and riding horses and ponies
have become more important, said Oliver Illing.
 The
NFU secretary's tale
It was the end of an era for the Norfolk National Farmers’
Union when the third and final county secretary Ken Leggett retired
in 1991 from Agriculture House, Norwich, as a regional office and
structure was adopted.
 The
drover's tale
Trade in beef cattle in the 1940s and 1950s was big business at
Norwich Market, then held on The Hill in front of the Castle. Norfolk
farmer John Garner was just ten years old in 1947 when he drove
his first lot of cattle home to Godwick Hall, near Tittleshall.
 The
butcher's tale
When the butcher’s boy delivered meat to customers in Aylsham
three times a week, most of the beef, lamb and pork had been slaughtered
behind the family’s shop. Master butcher Peter White (pictured),
followed his father, Gilbert, into the family business and today
his son, Crawford, is the third generation running the Red Lion
Street butchers.
 The
manufacturer's tale
Forty years ago, standing in a potato field as half-drunk pilots
sprayed crop protection chemicals a few feet over his head must
have been unnerving. Today, Neal Sands runs one of the world’s
leading companies making award-winning specialist crop spayers.
 The
egg producer's tale
A flock of hens scratching about the farmyard was typical on almost
every farm in Norfolk when eggs were often of dubious quality in
the post-war years. For dairy farmer turned egg producer Basil Cook,
it was also a time when poultry meat was a luxury item on the dinner
table.
 The
potato merchant's tale
Growing potatoes has become a scientific operation to meet the demands
of the consumers, retailers and processors. When Mike Brighton,
chairman of RBR Potatoes, of North Walsham, started in the industry
in 1955, it was all hand work.
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