Stocken Farm with R M West & Son
From Lacey Green History
Research by Joan West
......continued from 1948-1960 Stocken Farm with Dick & Hilda West.
...followed by Stocken Farm (R M West & Son) with John & Joan.
R M West & Son was a farming partnership formed in 1960 the homestead being at Stocken Farm.
DICK, HILDA & JOHN the partners of R M West & Son
In 1954, Dick and Hilda's son John, who had a love of chemistry, decided to take up farming – much to their relief! A year’s practical at home and two years at Harper Adams Agricultural College brought him back to the farm in 1957.
By this time Dick had increased the cows to 26, his sheep to about 60 and had established a good name for commercial breeding pigs. They prepared a few cockerels and turkeys for Christmas and had more hens.
The horses were replaced by two tractors, their first (second-hand) combine had been purchased in 1956. (This combine sent the grain out to the side where a man stood on a platform to tie up the bags into which the grain had dropped), - and they now owned their farm.
Dick and John were very lucky. Together, with tremendous affection and respect for each other they took Stocken Farm forward into the 1960’s.
In 1958 extra land was rented. click Walters Ash Farm
1960 the partnership R M West & Son was formed.
John started by waging war on the mud. The earth yards (often mud) and drive were gradually concreted a bit every year, until machines, animals and men could get around more easily. The concrete drive was reinforced, which would soon have been essential anyway, as the lorries got bigger and heavier. The cows had been overwintered in an earth yard behind the house, bedded with straw. This was the first place to be done.
In 1963 the first milking parlour was installed. It was a big breakthrough. Now one man could milk 60 cows, whereas before there was a considerable amount of physical labour involved in chaining cows, carting churns, leaning equipment and cooking the milk. Now all that was automated.
To justify the outlay more cows had been reared and some were purchased in order to use the parlour to an eonomic capacity
More land was needed for the extra cows, so sadly, the flock of sheep was sold. They had needed new fences, races and dip anyway and it was not possible to run to everything.
Increased Milk Yields. In 1957 the cows were giving an average of 700 gallons of milk per year. In 1984 they were giving an average of 1,400 gallons. How? With improved nutrition, better housing and AI. Now the services of the very best proven bulls in the country are available, at a price, for every cow. Even the ‘bull of the day’, the cheapest on the AI list, is way, way above the standard of the average farm-owned bull.
1966. High Wycombe Market Christmas Show. Carcase Competition. Chicken. 1st prize R M West &Son Hen Turkey. 1st prize R M West & Son
Cock Turkey 1st prize R M West & Son
Challenge Cup for the best Turkey R M West & Son.
Bulls
I’m sure Hilda was very relieved when the dairy bulls went. One that lived in the fields with the cows had tossed both Alf, the cowman, and Dick. Bulls in fields were required to wear a metal face mask. He had rubbed it off and at the time was being brought home. Another bull was kept in a strong, brick-built bull pen right outside the back door of the house. The bulls gone and nothing to be wasted, Dick then kept pigs in the pen. The smell was very ‘rural’ when the wind was the wrong way. Hilda found these pigs handy when she had the occasional baking disaster. Men have a nasty habit of asking “Why did you do it” if you do not dispose of the evidence!
1971. A SAD GOOD BYE TO PIGS
Big changes were happening in the pig world. Fat bacon, beloved by our forefathers, was no longer wanted, so specialised hybrid pigs were bred to cater for the public’s new lean taste. They needed much more particular husbandry than the old breeds.
March 1971. The decision to stop producing pigs, no longer popular, was made for Dick and John when Reading pig sales finished. The monthly trips to Reading Market had been a very happy part of Dick’s farming life. The last sale there consisted largely of his herd and a sad day it was too.
In a letter dated 15 March 1971 Dick Long of Thimbleby and Shorland said "It was a sad day for both of us as we have had eighteen years of continual meeting at our pig sales and I am sorry that this has now ceased."
GREAT MOSELY FARM at Naphill was Purchased in ???? the house was sold off.
-
-
KINGSWOOD FARM in Highwood Bottom was purchased on 17th Oct 1963 Conveyance. Frank Malcolm Allen-Armitage sold Kingswood Farm to R M West & Son of Stocken Farmfor £8,000, comprising 51.379 acres. click Kingswood Farm for the history of the farm
Farm Visit by German farmers. In July 1965 a fulsome letter of thanks was received from O Dreyer on behalf of this coach load of farmers who had visited the farm. Joan recalls being pinched on the bottom (by a Count, no less!) when going up a clamp of silage. All in a day's work!!!
PROPERTIES BUILT
In 1965 two more houses were built as the staff increased and in 1970 and a bungalow for Hilda and Dick. This was built to be easy for Hilda. Dick, to his surprise got used to it, although he spent all day at the farm and would soon put anyone right if they called it a ‘retirement’ home.
1975. Accident at Kingswood Farm, 1975,recorded, in the Farm Accident Book. A tractor driver was turning hay in the field above Kingswood House. when the turner got clogged. He alighted the tractor and unblocked the implement. The tractor started to move downhill. Gathering speed it proceeded to go through the washing line, draping the clothes round the tractor, which then delivered them right through the kitchen wall thereby completely wrecking the kitchen. Mrs James, a stalwart woman, saw it coming and got out before it arrived.
Its an ill wind that blows no good!!! Having recovered from the shock Mrs James was delighted with a brand new kitchen and boiler system replacing the ancient one that the old house had before, paid for by the tractor owners insurance.
A TON OF GRAIN TO AFRICA
Summer 1984 was superb weather for the grain harvest and as all the world must know there were record crops. When drilling, no one can foretell if it will be a good or bad season and naturally everyone sets out to grow as good a crop as possible. We were glad the crops were good. John had sent a ton of grain to Africa in August, long before the media brought all those starving people into our sitting rooms. So we have a surplus! Surely that is preferable to going short.
1986. June 15th. Stocken Farm held an Open Day for the public to look round.
THE FARM PARTNERSHIP LOSES HILDA & DICK
Sadly we had lost both Hilda and Dick from our farming partnership, Hilda in 1979 and Dick in 1983.
Click Stocken Farm (R M West & Son) with John & Joan to continue the story of Stocken Farm
Dick and Hilda lived in Stocken Farmhouse from October 1934 to January 1970
In 1970 a new bungalow was built in Kiln Lane for Dick and Hilda. They called it Cotswold.
John and Joan, who had been living in Coronation Cottage no 2 in Kiln Lane, needed a bigger house for their growing family. A bungalow would also be much better for Hilda, who had a weak heart. Dick, Hilda, Harry Floyd and Hilda’s father Fred Thomas Crook moved into the bungalow. John, Joan and their children Patricia, Caroline and Richard moved into Stocken Farmhouse. Dick had not retired and still came every day to the farm.
John and Joan lived in no 2 Coronation Cottages (later renamed no 1 Stocken Cottages) in Kiln Lane, from September 1961 to January 1970 when they moved into Stocken Farmhouse.
Hallmark December 1974. A milestone in milk production was achieved at Stocken Farm, in November, when a Friesian cow produced 10 gallons of milk in 24 hours. Congratulations to Mr West and all his staff.
-
Sadly. the huge Horse Chestnut tree at the entrance to the farm drive was hit by lightening and had to be immediately felled. Another on the opposite side of the drive, although younger and not damaged was then so lop-sided that it too had to be felled.
-
-
John and Joan moved out of the farmhouse in February 2006 to a new house across the front field which they called Arcadia.
JOHN WEST DOES NOT RETIRE
In 2005 it became obvious that Richard and Maxine, with two children, needed more bedrooms than the ’Cowshed’ could provide. Application was made and passed for a new house to be built on the Main Road for John and Joan. They moved out of the farmhouse in February 2006, and Richard and Maxine moved into the farmhouse. Maxine’s parents, Ed & Liz Phllips, moved into the ‘Cowshed’.
John did not retire and still came every day to the farm.
When Richard & Maxine married they lived in a converted farm building which they called The Cowshed. They moved into the farmhouse in 2006.
DEATH OF JOHN WEST
John West died in July 2010. The partnership, R. M. West and Son, continued with Richard, Maxine and Joan.