John & Joan West

John West born 1937 was the son of Dick & Hilda West

Joan Gillingwater born 1939 was the son of Len & Mattie Gillingwater

John and Joan married in 1961.

JOHN WEST of STOCKEN FARM    by Joan West (wife)

JOHN RICHARD WEST

John West was the son of Dick and Hilda West, who had taken Stocken Farm in September 1934.   John was born in April 1937.    Hilda had a weak heart after rheumatic fever and had been advised not to have children. This she ignored, but John was to be an only child.

THE HOUSEHOLD in WARTIME

1939 saw the outbreak of WW2.   Every spare room at Stocken Farm was used by Bomber Command to accommodate officers and their families.   Young John was not short of comrades.   Also into the house moved his mother’s father (Grandad Crook) and Harry Floyd, who came temporarily to recuperate from bronchitis.    Both were still with them thirty years later.

PRISONERS OF WAR

John got friendly with the prisoners of war who worked on the farm.   The bread they were given to bring for their lunch was often green with mould.   They longed for crusty bread from the bakehouse.    They begged worn out hessian sacks to make rope shoes to sell, for they were not given money.   John secretly bought bread for them with the cash they made.  There were also prisoners of war in Highwood Bottom.   They did not work at Stocken Farm, but cooked chips in the evening that smelled wonderful.   They longed for a football.   John supplied a football and got to share the chips.

P.R.Y.F.C.

He joined Princes Risborough Young Farmers Club when eleven or soon after.    He remained a member till obliged to leave at twenty five, having been many years on the committee, acted as treasurer for years and represented them in local and national competitions.   He then became a vice-president all his life.

AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

In 1954, John, had tossed up between Chemistry and Farming, and decided on farming, much to his parents’ relief.   After a year’s ‘practical’ at home, he enrolled at Harper Adams Agricultural Collage, in Shropshire, coming back to the farm in1957, having been awarded the medal for the second best student for that intake.    He had been given a grant to go there, which helped with the finance.    Very few students had a car, certainly not John and it was usual for him to hitch lifts to travel.   They sat final exams in Leeds.   Shropshire was good way from home to hitch,  Leeds even further.

R. M. WEST & SON

Back home in 1957 it was not long before his parents made him a partner with them in the farm business, and “R.M.West and Son” was born.   Partners: Richard Montague West, Hilda Elsie West, & John Richard West.

THE FARM in 1957

By 1957 Dick had increased the cows to 26, his sheep to about 60 and had established a good name for commercial breeding pigs, which he sold at Reading market.   They prepared a few cockerels and turkeys for Christmas and had more hens.   The horses had been replaced by two tractors, their first combine harvester was recently purchased and they owned the farm, the mortgage had been cleared.

CHANGES in FARMING

Now, students were coming from the collages with more professional knowledge. Machines became more specialised, but were expensive.    Crop and stock breeding advanced, everything became easier and yet more difficult.   Old style farming had to change – or else

MOVING FGORWARD

Dick and John were lucky.   Dick, steeped in farming experience, John trained to look at things in a new way.    Together, with respect and affection for each other, they took Stocken Farm forward into the 1960’s.

THE NEW PARTNERSHIP 

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 comfortably.     The concrete drive was reinforced, which would soon have been essential anyway, as the lorrys 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.

MILKING PARLOUR

In 1963, their first milking parlour was installed.    This was a big breakthrough.   Now one man could milk 60 cows