Dick & Hilda West

DICK and HILDA WEST of STOCKEN FARM      by Joan West (daughter in law)

THEY MET AT THE BLACKSMITH’S

Richard West (Dick) was a farmer’s son from Myze Farm, West Wycombe,on the Oxford Road.   Hilda Crook was the daughter of Fred. Crook who had retired to Wheeler End because of ill health.   Wheeler End being at the top of the hill above the Oxford Road, what better place to meet but at the blacksmith’s.    By 1934, aged 23 they had decided to marry and sought a farm to rent for themselves.

FARMS ABANDONED IN DEPRESSION

In 1934, William Saunders of Stocken Farm, Lacey Green, died.   The farm, together with a field called ‘Hillocks’, was sold.   It was bought by his son-in-law, Ernest Smith, married to William’s daughter, Daisy, for £3,225.    Ernest was running J.Smith and sons, road contractors, at Naphill, so he put the farm up for rent.   The country was in a great depression, land was being abandoned.   Few applied, and those who did had to have guarantors to pay the rent in case things did not work out.   Hilda’s stepmother stepped in to guarantee the rent and a contract was signed.   It was traditional to take a farm at Michaelmas, the 29^th September. This they did.

STARS NOT RIGHT FOR MARRIAGE

Hilda’s stepmother believed in astrology and insisted that they waited until into October to get married, when the stars would be more auspicious.     Dick, meanwhile, took lodgings in Lacey Green.    Once married they moved into the farmhouse.    It was overrun with black beetles and probably other creatures, for it had been empty for a while.

LANDLORD’S IMPROVEMENTS

A considerable amount had been done by the new landlord to get the place in order, laying on water and installing a bathroom in one of the 6 bedrooms.    The house was dark and damp.   Outside it was engulfed in massive laurel and there were great trees right up near the house.   These were later cleared, but had already caused subsidence, for the old house had no foundations.

CRAZY OR COURAGEOUS?

Little by little, by sheer grit and hard work, they got on their feet.   Dick was a careful man, certainly not a gambler, yet taking Stocken Farm when people were leaving the land wholesale, was an unimaginable gamble.

'Grandad' Crook ( Hilda's father) and John

1n 1937 Dick and Hilda's son, John Richard West was born.

click 1934-1948 Stocken Farm with landlord Ernest Smith and tenants Dick & Hilda West for more pictures of young Richard.

TO BUY OR NOT TO BUY?

In 1948 Dick and Hilda West had the opportunity to buy Stocken Farm.    Dick, now 37, who had never borrowed in his life, bolstered by terrific faith from his wife and insistent advice from a friend, took courage, took a mortgage from the friend, and set out to make the 190 acres of Stocken Farm their own.    As in 1934, every penny had to be made to count. click Stocken Farm with Dick & Hilda West for the years before R M West was formed in 1957

1957 PROGRESS to DATE

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 paid off.

1957.   R. M. WEST & SON IS FORMED

In 1957 John, their Son, finished at agricultural college in Shropshire.   He had obtained a grant to go there, and the partnership R. M. West was formed.   Consisting of Richard Montague West, Hilda Elsie West & John Richard West.

1964.   REPORT in BUCKINGHAMSHIRE FARMERS’ RECORD.   BUCKS FARMER. R. M. WEST, STOCKEN FARM.

EXTRA LAND

In 1963, Mr. West purchased a further 50 acres of adjoining land and also rents 100 acres at Naphill, making a total acreage of 370 acres.

THE LAND

Stocken Farm is a typical Chiltern farm, some 700 feet above sea limit, with half the fields sloping away from the farm buildings in steep banks.   In his early days he used three horses on a single furrow plough on these steeps banks.  The soil is clay with flints and it varies in depth from 4” to 8”, and the arable land has to be ploughed in the autumn and needs a frost tilth before spring sowing.

ENTERPRISES

There are four main enterprises on the farm, corn crops, dairying, pigs and poultry.

CORN CROPS

Barley consists of 10 acres of Dea, which was harvested in late July, and 50 acres of Vada, and all the crops are fed to livestock on the farm.   The 120 acres of wheat is mainly Capelle and a small acreage of Opal.   The average yields are about 32 cwts per acre.  There are 11 acres of kale and 12 acres of fallow.  The fertiliser programme consists of all the farmyard manure from 100 cattle kept in yards during the winter, plus combine drilled complete fertiliser plus top dressing of up to 4 cwt of nitrogen.

DRYING, MILLING & MIXING

Originally, a ventilated bin type corn drier was installed, but in view of the additional arable acreage, a near-by building is being converted into a floor drying system and storage.   There is a mill and mixer which provides practically all of the feed from home grown corn for the livestock, which amounts to about 300 tons a year.

MILKING HERD

The milking herd consists of 30 pedigree Ayrshires and 25 Ayrshires crossed with Friesian.   All replacements are reared on the farm, and in addition bulling heifers are bought to graze the outlying land and then sold at calving.   There is no permanent grass on the farm and the milking herd is strip- grazed after a cut of silage has been taken.

1979. Death of Hilda West.

In 1981 Dick remarried to Margery Smith. click Ted & Margery Smith for more about Margery

1983 Death of Dick West by Ted Janes, editor of Hallmark. Dick West (as we knew him) came to Lacey Green with his wife Hilda in the 30's and bought Stocken Farm. With hard work and obvious know how he set about making the farm one of the best managed and efficient farms in the area.

He became very involved in Buckinghamshire farm circles, and very respected throughout the farming fraternity.

Dick was keenly interested in village affairs, a great fan of Hallmark. Certainly his happy face will be sorely missed in the village.

Our sympathy goes to 2nd wife Margery and son John.