Farming From Horses To Electronics

A Memory of Edingley.

My grandfather G. A. Smith took the tenancy of Springs Farm on Edingley Moor in 1931, when I was six months old. A builder by trade, and a sergeant in the Sherwood Rangers Yeomanry during the First World War, he farmed entirely with horses and the hand-graft of his sons and daughters, not to mention his wife Aggie. In 1934 agricultural depression was at its worst and he went back to his trade and his son-in-law, my father David Butler (Jack) Watts took over the tenancy. The farm was then part of the Hexgreave Estate. Jack, a champion ploughman from Derbyshire, brought an old Fordson with him to supplement the horses, and was able to start farming with a contract with the new Milk Marketing Board. The farm then had its own watermill, and by gradually adding labour-saving machinery and another tractor Jack was able to get established. I was eight when the war started, and in August 1940 the farm was straddled with about 180 incendiary bombs, possibly jettisoned after a failed raid, and some HE bombs were then dropped up in the village. None of these did very much harm or caused casualties, and my brother Richard was born a month later. He, still a bachelor, is still living and farming at Springs farm
Originally there was no electricity, gas, mains water or sewerage, all cooking done on the open fire and washing in the coal-fired copper. With no help but a Land Army girl Paddy Storer, Jack installed a petrol-engine driven milking machine.
In 1950 the farm well became polluted, and mains water was laid on via a mile-long iron pipe. The herd then became attested, and the cowsheds and dairy were modernised. Herbicides now ensured weed-free corn crops, which enabled the use of our first small combine in 1954, and in the same year we had our first pick-up baler. In 1955 mains electricity was laid on, and from then on the farm no longer smelt of paraffin lamps. In 1961 the great change was made to the bulk handling of corn with a new combine, drier and storage bins. Finally in 1962 the then landlord Sir Stuart Goodwin decided to split up the estate and Jack, Richard and I were able to buy the farm. In 1960 I was married to Doreen Hopkinson and we set up home in a very old cottage in the village, which eight years later Jack replaced by building us a new small house.
My mother Ellen Tempest Watts died after years of severe illness in 1968, and Jack himself died in 1974. Two years later came the change from milking to beef-rearing. In recent years the main problem with all farms has been the overburden of bureaucracy and regulation, requiring endless form-filling.
I had for nearly forty years been a parish councillor in Edingley, and served in various posts in the Association of Parish Councils. In retirement, while helping part time at the farm, I studied for a science degree with OU, and in 2000, having over many years collected historical information about the parish, I wrote and published a book, "Edingley, a Description of a Nottinghamshire Village", which may be referred to in the County Library.
My brother Richard, whose lifelong hobby has been cine film, owns the British Agricultural Film Archive, over 2000 films to do with farming in UK and world-wide.
There are no longer any horses, and the water supply to the mill has long gone due to extraction, but the farmstead, built in 1850 by Richard Parkinson Milward as a model home farm is still much the same as it ever was, and still in use.
I retired from the partnership with Richard in 1997 in poor health, while Richard carries on with help from contractors despite a disabling stroke in 2005.

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