Ash to Ashes

The news about the spread of ash dieback disease is depressing. I have heard today that a case has been confirmed in Devon. It is almost certain that a 'cure' will not be found before the majority of our trees are lost.
Here in this part of  Devon we have had a long standing relationship with Ash.
It is one of the fastest growing trees so there has been a chance of seeing ash trees grow nearly to maturity within your lifetime. It results in a less dense canopy in summer with its delicate feathery pinnate leaves than some others allowing more undergrowth and variety of flora at ground level. It doesn't seem to attract grey squirrels and thus remains undamaged in young plantations while the squirrels wreck the beech, hornbeam, oak and sycamore. The grey bark and recognisable buds are a feature of so many of our copses and hedgerows as well as woods.
Its wood is prized for some specialised uses such as handles and hockey sticks but of course it is the best of all timber for logs; burning well when still fresh.Our family has a tradition of burning the ashen faggot at Christmas. The bundle of ash sticks are wrapped with three withy (willow) bands and if you guess the first one to burst when they are heated you will have luck in the following year.
Walter Pitts who used to work on the farm was fond of the saying 'oak before ash we shall have splash; ash before oak we shall have soak'. This year the ash trees came out before the oaks and the rain has never stopped.Mind you Walter was never wrong so he was always able to adapt the facts to fit reality!

young Ash tree

My Morris Traveller; companion in my youth; stalwart mode of transport, overnight accommodation and store for my cricket kit and appropriately named 'Ken Barrington' (because it was steady, dependable and accumulated miles slowly as he did his runs) was a car with an ash back.

Yet in truth the ash is a boring tree in some ways too. It's fast growing, invasive nature makes it a competitor for other trees.This is fine when you need pioneer trees on poor soil- less good when it prevents other trees having the space to develop. We have a self seeded ash playing havoc with a wisaria plant that we cannot defeat and loads of self seeded ash in amongst a mixed broadleaf copse. While its winged 'helicopter' seeds help it to spread easily its autumnal display is dull and not a patch on the beeches that are in full display at the moment.

Nevertheless the potential loss of so many trees must be viewed with trepidation. We will recover of course- as we did from Dutch Elm disease and from the great storms of 1987 and 1990. The prospect of more disruption to our native trees- the fantastic architectural backdrop to our landscape- must be a real concern however. The degree to which we appear to be under threat now as a result of climate change and the free movement of products around the world suggests to me that, in addition to improving our defences and our vigilance, we need to be ensuring that our research and development is properly resourced. The general public seem to take trees for granted. Perhaps chalara fraxinea will change that. I hope too that the scientists will be able to learn from those ash trees that have survived in Denmark and help us to develop varieties that are resistant so that once again people will learn that
'ash wood green and ash wood brown
are fit for a Queen with a golden crown'

 

An apple a day

One of the consequences of the reduction in casual labour on farms is that many of the smaller jobs and, in particular, the manual jobs don't get done. This is partly the result of the intensification of agriculture and the need to justify all labour costs in a manner that satisfies the adviser, the accountant and the bank manager, but it is also the result of the reluctance of many of those who work on farms to do the manual jobs such as cleaning out the drain that cannot be reached by the swing shovel. Part of the excitement for young employees is the opportunity to drive 'boys toys' which they do largely pretty efficiently, if too fast, on country lanes. It is hard enough to sell the idea of an agricultural career to schoolchildren. It won't be made easier by telling them that they will be cleaning out the pig sheds by hand.
One of the jobs that used to be done on a mixed Devon farm was pruning the apple trees in the orchards. In recent years it isn't only this job that hasn't been done, it is even the picking or collecting of the apples themselves that has been ignored as the apples fall and the ground around the trees seethes in a wasp frenzy. Collecting apples has either not proved profitable enough or, because picking in orchards is increasingly mechanised, the appropriate machinery has not been available at the right price for the small scale producer to make it worth their while.

One of few blossoms this year

Last year, unable to bear the waste, I borrowed some big bags that my neighbour uses to collect his apples. He is a man in his 70s, used to hard work and to making the most of his resources and not afraid of a bit of hard work himself. He takes his apples in by the trailer load and is fortunate to have an outlet locally where he sells them by the tonne.
 I filled the bags and took them to our local town where we didn't just sell the apples, we had some of them them (the cider apples!) made into cider, others into fruit juice and some went into the freezer.The cider's good and we will be drinking it at my son's wedding in a few weeks time.
This year however the trees are bare. Very few of them, in the atrocious weather conditions, have produced fruit at all and those apples that have appeared look more like green maltesers they are so small.

Cider orchard in winter

One or two trees are doing well however.This is the advantage of having an orchard with a mixture of varieties to deal with the vicissitudes of the seasons; of temperature, rainfall, flowering and pollination. Modern commercial growers, faced with the stringent demands of the supermarkets and their buying public who they don't bother to educate about varieties or blemishes and needing to mechanise and standardise don't have this option. A rise in price won't help them if they don't have any and in a world market there are plenty that will have them. Buy British will sound a bit hollow.
Our orchards are not going to be much of a commercial asset this year but they are an environmental oasis. Whether it is lichen, butterflies, birds, flowers or bees; they play an important role in this special part of Devon

Best of Britain

This has been a summer of extremes. Extremes of weather have ranged from drought threats in the spring to deluges in the summer. There have been extremes of emotion too ranging from the celebrations around the Diamond Jubilee to the roller coaster of joy and despair for competitors and audiences involved in the 2012 Games.

These extremes have had an impact on rural businesses and the environment and it has all been played out against the backdrop of an uncertain economy.

Wildlife has suffered. Farming has suffered. Tourism has suffered. The extreme weather conditions both here and in the US have brought home the realities of a changing climate and have perhaps re-inforced the need for a greater degree of self-sufficiency. Nowhere has this battle been fought more publicly than on the dairy farmers' blockades of the milk processing and distribution hubs. The fragility of our ecosystems are illustrated by the concern for the plight of the bee; at risk yet vital for the pollination of so many plants and crops.



 Yet when Communities have needed to come together more than ever to a large extent this has happened. Britain has also been showcased in an unprecedented way. Our landscapes, our history and our welcome- surprising to some- have all sown the seeds of potential business in the future. How do you measure the value of sheer joy and enthusiasm and the release of endorphins that has accompanied so many aspects of the Games and with the paralympics still to come? In amongst the rain and the wind we have been able to feel proud of our country; of our blend of culture,creed and colour; of our sense of humour and of fair play; of our creativeness; of our efficiency; of our modernity. Let us hope that this bodes well for our future and for our rural businesses.

The joys of repairing a listed roof

There is something about running an old house that is bitter sweet. It shouldn't be complicated but it is.
For over 30 years we have had a problem with our roof. Finally we decided to tackle the worst part of it this summer. We chose the time as a compromise between supposed good weather (easy and quick to do) and interfering with our holiday visitors (staying in the house and visiting it by day).

So far it's been pretty disastrous. The delays have not been the builders fault. We had to move scaffolding for a commercial wedding (photos of the wedding party) and we have had to move holiday makers to alternative accommodation (hammering above their heads early in the morning). The scaffolding has now gone up right outside the house martin nests where the young are about to fledge. Now the intensity of the rain has meant that it has been getting through the temporary covering. Our son came home for the week-end with his wife to find not only was it raining in his bedroom but in the bathroom too. Finally this week it was so intense that it broke through the temporary barriers to stream down the main internal wall. That would have been bearable if there hadn't been our only 17th century portrait of a revered ancestor below. She has now had to go for treatment ( water and oil on the same canvas is not good news).Naturally some extra problems have emerged during the work too so overall the cash flow for this year has not worked out quite as planned. original cost, extra work, lost holiday income, cost of delays and any redecoration/restoration internally not covered by insurance. I do get a strange sliver of satisfaction in knowing that, as these are repairs, bizarrely they would have attracted VAT anyway before the Chancellor's budget proposed adding VAT for improvements, so there is no extra disadvantage there.

What are the advantages? It has enabled insulation to be put in in otherwise inaccessible areas of the roof. We have been able to work out a bit more about the history of the house through successive earlier roof timber replacement. It reminded me that the only place to photograph a cottage behind for advertising purposes is from the roof. Finally it reminded me that the views to the south are the best in the country.
                                     

Olympic Torch-lessons for farming and heritage attractions

For several years now I have been involved in South West England’s preparation for the 2012 Olympic Games. Although when London won the bid in Singapore, our team promised that the Games would be for the whole country and not just for London, engagement with 2012 outside the capital was patchy. It didn’t help that, in Britain, we soon found ourselves in recession and the resulting budget cuts for Local Authorities in particular, led to a re-assessment of priorities. The Olympics, for obvious reasons, was not always top of that list.

It was therefore with a sense of apprehension that I watched BA flight 2012 touch down at RNAS Culdrose bringing with it, cradled by celebrities, the Olympic flame. The organisation had been done, the plans made but no-one knew how the public would react. For example, in my local parish - Cadbury in Mid-Devon-  in a recent questionnaire people had shown very little interest in an Olympic celebratory event.

                                         Celebrities with the flame disembarked at Culdrose

At Culdrose, with an invited audience only, it was difficult to gauge the public mood. The Princess Royal was excellent as ever; Seb Coe charming and smiling and three politicians: Clegg, Hunt and Johnson, thoughtful. The star, however was Beckham and it was him as much as the flame that the crowd wanted to see. It was therefore still with some trepidation that, having heard the alarm go off ridiculously early the next day, I set off for Land’s End.

                                         Ben Ainslie with the helicopter pilot

Almost immediately we saw crowds making their way there too- on buses, on bikes, in cars, on foot. All were smiling and happy in the dawn. The atmosphere was carnival, the beat of drums rhythmic and the fancy dress outrageous. A sense of expectation greeted the sound of the helicopter bringing the flame from its overnight storage in the Culdrose officers’ mess and Ben Ainslie- triple gold medallist- was swamped by photographers, reporters and TV crews as soon as he appeared with the torch. It was when he set off amidst cheering, flag waving crowds and handed over to Tassy Swallow who received the same superstar treatment that I felt optimistic about the reaction of the great British public.

As I waited, with others in cars, for the flame to pass through Penzance there was no road rage. No-one minded that the street decorations had been painstakingly erected for a fleeting moment only. Carrying on to Plymouth, the first overnight stop, I was amazed at the public reaction. The Hoe was jam packed with crowds. Down in the city centre people waited patiently for hours keeping their place alongside the torchbearers route. When the runners arrived the excitement was palpable; the cheering loud and long. This was a pattern to be repeated in Exeter the following night and in Taunton the next.

                                                        crowds on Plymouth Hoe

It quickly became apparent that it is the torchbearers who are the stars. Their stories are truly inspiring. What I was not prepared for was the emotion experienced by the crowds at seeing them run, or walk or be helped along; see them exchange the torch 'kiss' or run through the cheering crowds up onto the stage to light the flame. This emotion was felt not just along the route, although this was impressive enough; not just in the venues for the evening celebrations though they were packed; it was around the corner, down the street and in the park. It felt to me like a great outpouring of relief that they had something to celebrate; something positive, some good news amongst the relentless and depressing diet of gloom that forms the standard media output. Gone was the previous cynicism. It had been replaced with joy

                                         Torchbearer cheered through Exeter's Cathedral Close

What are the lessons that the farming and the heritage attraction sectors; sectors also close to my heart can draw from this experience?

The message has been simple and easy to understand; the product has a recognisable brand and it has been well communicated. It has appealed to a lot of people but, in view of the population distribution in this country, it has been and will increasingly be, an urban phenomenon even if some of the iconic images have been taken in the countryside. This is not surprising as the aim is to bring the flame within range of 95% of the population. Novelty, patriotism, admiration, compassion and excitement are five words that sum up for me some of the reasons that the Torch Relay has been a success so far. It has gone with the grain of the population and the stage shows have appealed to a young audience for whom rap, hip-hop, dance and acrobatics are important.

Are farming messages simple? Possibly but are they well communicated and contemporary? I am not so sure. Do they play well to an urban population where the main markets are? Yeo Valley advertisements, albeit tongue in cheek, are an exception to the rule. Do they command admiration, compassion and excitement-probably not. Local food campaigns do play on a patriotic, community heart string and novelty is not a problem with new products constantly being introduced. The issue is that farmers are often not in control of how their product is presented. This is left to the retailers. Yet in a world increasingly at risk of a food imbalance, there is more respect for those in agriculture. What won’t help are the tweets that I have picked up from elements of the farming community decrying the Relay and declaring it to be a waste of money. This is dangerous talk if farming is to be properly positioned appealing to the right audiences and particularly for an industry in receipt of huge sums of public money.

In the heritage attraction world I think some of the issues are similar. Perhaps admiration and respect are more in evidence than for farming where the hard work and wholesome products are sometimes tarnished by the perception of subsidies and welfare. The heritage message is similarly simple. By definition the product is not contemporary and its presentation could certainly be more so. Popular heritage destinations are either those that induce wonder through the architecture (Blenheim) or the contents (National Gallery) or have immediacy or a connection with community (Cothele Manor House or St Enedoc’s church) What is often lacking is excitement and relevance. The Olympic Torch had all of this but of course it has two distinct advantages; adequate funding and the fact that it only comes around, for us at least, every 64 years.

Heritage- can we afford to conserve it today?

There has been little to do at home in the last 10 days except watch the rain come down in sheets. Today the wind has joined the rain and it has been trees coming down if not in sheets then certainly by the score. It is time to change tack slightly on the blog therefore and talk about heritage.

Last week I paid  a visit to Bowhill- a 16th Century merchants house extensively and painstakingly restored by English Heritage between 1980-97. Done when there was more money around, it would be difficult to justify today without a viable end use. It does have one fortunately as offices but whether it is viable of course is a different question in the light of the capital costs. The rooms are not easy to occupy and some (the great hall) are underutilised. One could not comprehend a private owner contemplating such a project, impressive though it is.
My next visit was to a grade II farmhouse badly damaged by fire where the interesting question arises- how much of what is significant can be saved and, is it sufficient to justify the necessary expenditure? Once again I detected a worry from the owners about what will happen next. The answers are never clear cut and often down to individual interpretation from those who enforce the rules. I think that it is this which causes difficulty- the lack of certainty. Normally in running a business or in property ownership the rules are more obvious.
I then found myself at the Eden Project in Cornwall. I have nothing but admiration for this project- its scale and imagination; its economic influence in a part of the County that needed help; its design and innovation; its sheer vision. I also , on a personal note, love the rainforest. Once again however I wonder about the economics. Public funds have been crucial in its success.
Finally I ended last week in Plymouth. This is a City that has got to grips with many of its deep seated problems but still has economic challenges particularly as the main employer- the Naval dockyard- downsizes.It also has lots of historic assets that are costly to look after. A particular challenge is the city centre where the grid pattern plan by Abercrombie was part of the post-war revitalisation of the City and is a classic of its kind. It is creaking at the edges however and , once again, we are into discussions of significance and economic viability.
So there is a theme here, in case you missed it! We have entered a new era of slow, if any, economic growth and an emphasis on local solutions. We have Government coffers that are empty and likely to be so for some time yet. Local solutions for properties require economic viability however and our challenge will be to keep the best of what we have; not to obstruct locally funded solutions but not to be held to ransom either in the face of poor design.

It isn't easy to be a wildlife friendly farmer- guest blog

Experiencing wildlife is one of the privileges of living in the countryside. Hearing it, seeing it and trying to understand it continues to delight and challenge me. Will the blue tits successfully use the house martins’ nest? Is it rabbit, squirrel or deer that has been removing the bark from that tree? You become only too aware that the interaction between species is an ever changing and delicate one. I suppose that is what ecosystems are.

We are very lucky. Our family have lived in the same part of Devon for many centuries. This gives me a feeling of responsibility for our land, for our buildings and for the community in which we live. The interaction between these different components gives us an ecosystem of our own.

For many years our family/land ecosystem has evolved slowly. We have navigated our way through diseases (Black Death); wars (including the Civil War) and economic turmoil (The Great Depression). As our family ecosystem has evolved so we have influenced wildlife and landscape in this little part of the country. Land use change may have resulted from personal interest (planting trees, particularly specimen trees) but more often from the economics of farming. We grew oats to feed working horses until the early 20^th century; flat pole cabbages, swedes and turnips either for human consumption or for livestock. Animals also grazed the grass that was fed by irrigation channels (‘catch meadows’) dug into the slopes.

The evolution of the wildlife ecosystems and our own was slow and they were interrelated. Some of our food and medicines came from the wild. Our community was a rural and farming one.

We have evidence of what life was like in this part of Devon over the years. I remember it as a boy. There is no doubt that we are seeing changes. The most obvious ones that I notice are rabbits back in some years to pre myxomatosis levels but no hares; a hugely increased population of badgers but very few hedgehogs; a hugely increased population of wood pigeons and corvids but fewer songbirds and less diversity. There are less insects and bees. There are fewer wildflowers, orchids, hedgerow plants and no poppies in the fields. There are more roe deer and a huge number of grey squirrels. There are no grey partridge. I am sad to see these changes as I know are very many other farmers and landowners. So the natural ecosystems are changing but so too has our ecosystem.

This last century saw an increase in the rate of change however. The first ‘popular’ tractor arrived in 1917 (the Fordson); the first commercial chainsaws appeared in the 1930s and the first commercially available pesticides and herbicides arrived around 1950. This coupled with a national policy to increase production led to the well documented changes that have led to changes in wildlife.

A vital part of our own ecosystem is money. We have a large overdraft to service, built up in the long period until recently when farming produced few profits. So repaying loans has to be done alongside competing demands in our ecosystem such as maintaining listed buildings at huge cost. Farming in an environmentally friendly way is a challenge. Stewardship schemes help but they are less well funded than they were and they don’t cover everything these days. I have spent a lot of money this last year on laying hedges, clearing scrub etc in areas not covered by the schemes. I will be providing public access next year that I am not compelled to do but will improve visitors enjoyment on an Iron Age hill fort. It will cost me money and bring me in no return at all and I will have to consider additional issues like health and safety as a consequence.

In these circumstances it is not surprising that the modern farmer uses whatever technology is available to him to improve financial performance; plants winter crops not spring crops and generally make his farm more efficient. He doesn’t want to see grain spilled on the ground at harvest even if sparrows do. He doesn’t have the time to measure optimum sward height or to manage small groups of cattle in tiny fields. He already has much more paperwork so he doesn’t welcome more. If he leaves skylark plots it looks as though his seed drill was blocked.

It isn’t that he is necessarily hostile to nature. Indeed he probably regrets the changes as much as anyone. It is just that he needs to make his living and he is wired to maximise production. He sees his role as feeding the population of this country and the world. He wishes he could do both.

An increasing number of farmers are however trying to produce food and environmental benefit together and, at long last, some serious attempts are being made to quantify this environmental benefit and to find ways of reflecting this in returns. The return of profitability to UK agriculture will certainly help but farming is an increasingly complex business and it would help if environmental guidance was clear, unambiguous and easy to implement. My worry is that the responses on the ground on individual farms will be too piecemeal and too small scale to reverse the declines in biodiversity that we have already seen.

One of the difficulties is the fact that the debate is often portrayed as production versus conservation and that this debate is conducted in the media often by sound bite. This blog is no stranger to the need to stimulate interest by courting controversy! There is a danger that the retreat into silos may happen politically too with the newly formed LEPs (local enterprise partnerships) not speaking to the soon to be formed LNPs (local nature partnerships) and leaving it to Government (DEFRA and BIS) to adjudicate. It will be interesting to see if the newly formed Rural and Farming Network reporting to DEFRA can help. I chair the South West Network in a part of the world where farming, environmental and community interests have worked well together and where our group was specifically designed to include representatives from each sector. I will let you know how we get on!

 This blog was posted on Mark Avery's blog at his kind invitation