The Farmers and their Farms

Juliette Rich
Wingstone Farm, Manaton

Juliette moved to Wingstone Farm with her family just about ten years ago. Geoff's dream was to retire early from his lifelong career as a dentist in Totnes, and become a Dartmoor Farmer. This was not to be as he died suddenly within a year of moving to Manaton. Juliette took on the farm, and built it into a thriving mixed hillfarm with cattle and sheep. More recently, Juliette has decided to move on to the next phase of her life, and has put the farm on the market.

Mary Lou North
Batworthy Farm, Chagford

Mary Lou has been farming on her own for just three years.  She, and her then husband, purchased the farm where she grew up when Mary Lou’s parents retired 15 years ago.  Mary Lou now lambs a flock of ewes and raises turkeys for the holiday market.  She has grazing rights on Gidleigh Common where much of the land is covered in significant bronze age settlements, stone rows and circles.  The Common is registered with English Nature as a SSSI (Site of Special Scientific Interest).  Much of her 47 acres is registered with Defra in the Environmentally Sensitive Area scheme as well as with the Soil Association.  Mary Lou is also Farm Manager of a neighbouring farm.  She and her son and daughter live in a mediaeval long house that has seen little change in the past 100 years.

Sue Peach
Drywell Farm, Widecombe-in-the-Moor

Sue grew up on Drywell Farm which has been farmed by three generations of her family.  After working away, she came back to run the farm 15 years ago when her mother was widowed (and soon after retired from active farming).  Sue and her family (her husband, a primary school head teacher in Newton Abbot and their daughter now at University) live in the farmhouse; her mother continues to live nearby.

The farm is located on the edge of a sheltered valley where fields are enclosed with stone walls and Devon hedges. The farm is involved in the Environmental Stewardship scheme, with the objective of improving its environmental and landscape value.

Sue has a flock of Lleyn ewes (a Welsh breed) and a herd of South Devon cattle whose lineage she can trace back through the family for over 100 years.  She also breeds Dartmoor ponies and is involved with the Dartmoor Pony Moorland Scheme.  Sue also has rights to graze stock on the common and is Secretary of the local Commoners Association.

She is currently branch chairman of the National Farmers Union.