Pendril Bentall manages and jointly owns Little Wakering Wick Farm with his brother Arthur Bentall. I have treated this as an audio interview since regrettably there are very few photographs because the house called ‘Pippins’ where Pendril’s brother Arthur lived in Little Wakering Road, caught fire in July 2013 and 95% of the family photos went up with it. As I expected, running a farm is a busy job and Pendril had to respond to various calls throughout the interview. I have edited out some of the calls but thought it best to keep some in, since they represent a typical farmer’s day. A & W Bentall was originally owned by Arthur Bentall, Pendril’s grandfather and William Bentall, his father. His brothers were also named William and Arthur with William marrying Susan Rayner of Oldbury Farm. William spent many years at University and became a scientist and has involvement in the recent spacecraft mission, to collect data and images of the planet Pluto and its surrounding moons and other objects in the Kuiper Belt. His other brother, Arthur, spent several of his earlier years working on the farm. The name ‘Pendril’ has been a popular first name in the Bentall family, for at least two hundred years. He was named after his great uncle, Rev. Pendril Bentall, who worked on the farm initially but did not get on with his brother, Pendril’s grandfather and moved up to Yorkshire.  He used to write in the Essex Countryside magazine quite often. One story is that the Bentall family were influenced by the Pendrell brothers, who in 1651, hid Charles II in an oak tree at the time of his exile. Pendril’s great grandfather came to Wakering in 1896 and rented Wick farm from Major Wedd up to 1953 at which point he had the opportunity to purchase the farm. He is 61 years old and started his schooling at Alleyn Court Preparatory School, Westcliff, Essex moving to a boarding school in Bishop’s Stortford between 1968 and 1971. He hated every minute of his schooling and achieved poor grades in the academic subjects. He smoked and drank but never touched drugs and rebelled against any further schooling on the grounds that learning French and other subjects would do nothing to help his future work as a farmer. He remembers only ever wishing to be a farmer and when he left school on 10 July 1971, he worked for his father as a ‘Day Man’ under his father and Alec Wilsmer, the farm manager. Alec’s wife Mary Willsmer has a few words to say about her late husband and shares some of her many photographs here. Pendril started in a piece work gang with Stan Ship and Eric Smith who actually taught him the more menial tasks of farming such as cutting cabbages and lettuces etc. Within 2 or 3 years, Pendril was considered to be up to speed and worthy of a full split of the piece work earnings. He started driving the tractor in 1974 doing, most of the drilling and spraying but his ultimate goal was to experience every job that there was to do on the farm and back then he thrived on physical work. Pendril was 27 years old when his father William died and he had to take over the running of the farm. Bentall Staff Pendril is the farm manager and employs a mechanic and a lorry driver, both who have been employed on the farm for the past 37 years. His son James is employed on the farm with responsibility for ploughing, fertilizing and potato grading. Also employed are a tractor driver, fertiliser and pesticide sprayer, potato grader and lifter along with a young lady on a casual basis. She undertakes a variety of roles on the farm including raking the manage at 7 o’clock each morning and mowing the chase. His wife Hilary does the administration for the farm. His staff are his son James Bentall, Tom Childs, Taylor Ford, Ben Miller, Geoff Streeter, Clive Smith and Richard Gardiner. In the early days, ‘Day Men’ were employed on a casual basis and during early spring up to one hundred casual workers could be seen in the fields picking peas. The pea pickers were predominantly mothers and children before and after school hours and during school holidays. Bentall Produce Wick Farm is a mixed farm covering some 900 acres and managing: 100 Cows & Calves 600 acres’ farmland 200 acres’ salt marsh 140 acres’ marsh land 30 stables for 30 horses (mainly for leisure) Preferred Cattle Breeds Wick Farm’s cattle include cows, bulls and steers (castrated bulls). Once the cattle reach the end of their productive lives they are sold off as meat for burgers, sausages and pies etc., in fact none of their meat gets wasted, even the bones are blasted and the meat used to produce Soups. Pendril’s preferred Cattle Breeds have been French breeds such as Blonde d'Aquitaine bulls and more recently Limousin and Charolais and Belgian blue. The Limousin is his the most popular breed since although their meat tastes no better than Aberdeen Angus, they are very well-proportioned animals and produce leaner and more expensive meat yields with less fat. He will probably use his British (Belgian) Blue bull next year with the intention of supplying both quality and quantity at a good price. Arable Crops 80 acres of potatoes are grown at Wick Farm and are their most lucrative crop with 90% of the yield supplying local fish and chip shops. Next comes 350 acres of wheat, 90 acres of Barley and 60 acres of beans. In addition to being high in protein, peas and beans also have a high concentration of vitamins and minerals. 30 acres of onions are the least lucrative crop. Pendril has a thriving local market for his arable crops and delivers locally through local greengrocers, fish and chip shops and restaurants. An Acre a Day Horses were indispensable on farms until the introduction of motor-driven machinery and tractors from the 1910s. Pendril pointed out that in the days of horse driven ploughs it would have taken a man a full day to plough 1 acre of land, pulling a single-furrow plough. The arrival of the tractor meant that a double-furrow plough could be pulled. Modern day tractors are able to pull 10 or 12 furrow ploughs and one just man can plough 30 to 40 acres per day. In spring, horses were hitched to ploughs, discs, grubbers and harrows, which were dragged across the soil to prepare it for planting crops. Horses pulled the seed drill for planting, and hauled the bags of seed and the fertiliser. In summer, horses pulled mowers, tedders and hay rakes for haymaking, and hauled hay to the stack. When the grain was ready, horses pulled the reaper-binder and transported the sheaves. In winter they were busy carting hay for feeding the farm animals. By the mid-1950s, farmers’ transition from horse power to tractor power was almost complete. Days of the Horsemen Compared to maintaining a tractor, looking after a team of working horses was a big job, and the horsemen worked hard. They started early in the morning to feed, groom and harness the horses before starting work and this took up to two hours. Another two hours would be spent feeding and grooming them again at night. They had to be shod regularly and the blacksmiths from Great Wakering would often visit and carry out the work on the farm. Horses ate as much as eight men or four sheep, so large amounts of valuable farmland were taken up in growing oats for them. The arrival of the tractor was a significant development for farmers such as Pendril’s father and grandfather and they experienced and lived through a dramatic change in farming methods. The biggest concern that farmers have today is the pressure that the large supermarkets put upon local farmers to keep prices down. In Pendril’s view, if it were not for the European Union and the Common Agricultural Policy subsidy for farming land, it would not be profitable to run a small farm and stay in business. The Last Horseman A century ago, power on farms was provided by five million heavy horses. They were the pride of rural Britain and the men who worked with them were the elite among farm workers. But today heavy horses are almost a thing of the past. They might be seen in all their glory at agricultural shows such as those held at Tabor Farm or Barleylands, decked in glistening harnesses and paraded around. Generally they are a distant memory. The last horseman on Bentalls Farm was Bertie Deeks (left in the photograph). He managed the last pair of working horses in 1967/68 before the tractor took over. Bertie’s wife also worked in the fields and helped in the “big” house. “ Sue Potter (Deeks) is quoted as saying “My grandfather Bertie Deeks was horseman on Bentalls Farm, Little Wakering, Wick Farm as it is known. He had the last pair of working horses before the tractor took over. My grandmother worked on the fields and helped in the “big” house and granddad said that those lovely horses were just like big sofas to ride upon.” Pea Picking Just after World War II had ended, jobs were scarce and there was a shortage of money for the new growing families. Local farmers were having to plant more crops and the average working class family was able to work on the farm and be paid in tokens for each complete bag of picked vegetables, mainly potatoes and peas. The tokens were exchanged at the end of the working day for cash. Local farmers, A & W Bentall, were no exception and Pendril remembers one morning getting up with the farm manager, Alec Willsmer, at 4 o'clock and by 7 o'clock there were 80 people in the field, picking peas. By 11 o’clock there were up to 100 people, mainly mothers and their school children. They would get up early each day before school and pick the peas. The parents would come back after 9 o’clock and work through to 2 o’clock. Alec Willsmer’s job was to weigh them, tie them and give them a pea check. Pendril’s job was to take the peas to Oldbury Farm with up to 400 on a trailer. Oldbury Farm would use 4 or 5 lorries to take them all up to the London markets.

Pendril Bentall

Local Farmer / Land Owner

Little Wakering Wick Farm

Interview by Richard Kirton 24 February 2016

Foulness may be out of bounds to most civilians, but it has five working farms, producing wheat, barley, hay, peas and linseed. Roger Burroughs is a farm tenant of both Tree Farm at Courts End and Quay Farm at Church End. He is the oldest male out of 18 surviving family members, and his cousin Margaret Rainham who lives at Church Hall in Paglesham, is the oldest surviving woman in the family. His mother and father, Peggy and William and their four sons and grandfather Moses Isaac Frederick Burroughs came from Latchingdon to Foulness Island on 4th October 1945 (the day that Roger was born) and took on 2300 acres of Foulness farmland. His Aunt Doris, who lives in Goodmans in High Street, Great Wakering is 99 years old and is 100 years old on the 3rd October 2017. Roger was a conventional farmer for 15 years rearing 150 beef cattle, 130 sheep clones and turkeys and chickens with Marsh the butcher in High Street Great Wakering being his closest customer. By 1986 he ceased farming livestock since it became so unprofitable and concentrated on his arable crops which included wheat, peas and barley. This, however was insufficient to support his family but he had the tenacity to survive and decided to diversify and create a new business as a contractor and Haulage and Transport provider licensed to operate vehicles under a National license for goods transport. Roger has always had a passion for heavy machinery and he needed to purchase a few items of machinery. It started with his purchase of an excavator but when he purchased further items of heavy machinery many other opportunities arose which resulted in him sharing the business with his son, Jason. His acquisition of some diverse heavy machinery created income streams outside the island including recovery in some local emergency situations and as his expertise grew he was contracted by QinetiQ for many tasks including the repair of seawalls and transporting of heavy equipment over the island. He has had to purchase some significant items of heavy machinery such as his Merlo DBM3500EV Self Loading Concrete Mixer (photo right) which has enabled him to manufacture the thousands of concrete blocks that he was contracted to make for QinetiQ. It is quite an experience to see this machinery in action and several videos have been posted on YouTube, one of which can be seen by clicking HERE. Most of the concrete blocks and metal framework used on the island were produced at Tree Farm and there was a time when he employed up to thirty- six people. Roger is a very unique farmer in continuing to produce his hay and arable crops along with the manufacture of concrete blocks and I can now understand his often-quoted phrase ‘We were on fire’. His and his son Jason’s joint business is now able to offer a vast range of services including Farming, Hay Making, Sheep Shearing, Concrete Block Manufacture and Concrete Crushing, Metal Structure Fabrication, Excavation, Haulage, Demolition and Emergency Services. All of Roger’s heavy machinery is owned by him and he calls them his ‘Big Toys for Little Boys’. They include amongst many other items of equipment, a Concrete Crushing Machine which his son went and bought from Barcelona and a 500 Horse Power 16 litre Combine Harvester which retails at £374,000.

The Island

We were met by Roger Burroughs, sporting his ‘Claas’ cap, at Landwick Gate at 10am on Sunday 22nd January 2017. We took a slow drive down the island’s main access road towards Church End with Roger explaining some of the activities that he has been involved in through the years as a contractor to the island. The landscape is made up of patchy dams and dykes dotted with fencing and vast, strange military engineering works, many lookout stations and concrete blocks. An ancient granary in a severe state of disrepair could be seen in the distance and many brick watch towers, rusting structures, glass- fronted chambers and heavy machinery, much of it belonging to or constructed by Roger are dotted across the eastern part of the island’s coastline. As we reached Church End, Roger turned right towards Courts End on the eastern side of the island and followed the route of the official Heritage Centre tour. The entire island portrays the illusion of peace and tranquillity and alongside the road to Courts End, we saw many birds including Little Egrets, Heron, Partridge, Pheasant and Brent Geese to name just a few. We arrived at Fisherman’s Head which is the northern most access point to the island from the Broomway, named after the old witch’s-style brooms. These can clearly be seen flanking the ramp down from the seawall to the Broomway, along with vast mounds of white cockle shells and a handful of old bulky and rusty spent ammunition casings. Roger explained about his contractual involvement in preparing certain testing environments in a fenced off area called the White City. Through the years this area has housed old jets, concorde fuselage sections, an Ejector Seat testing rig and the testing area for the Supersonic Harrier which he actually painted white at Tree Farm. Trials were carried out here from 1983, with the Harrier slung from a gantry (photo right). The effects of very high exhaust temperatures were assessed which could cause damage to the airframe and wing mounted stores, in addition to the ground surfaces below the aircraft. Although the Supersonic Harrier was never built, the data and lessons learned from this research later found their way into development of the modern-day Lockheed Martin F-35 joint strike fighter, which replaced the Harrier in the Royal Navy. In the early 70s some sections of British Aircraft Corporation's TSR2 were stored including a complete TSR2 airframe on its own concrete plinth. Close to here stands the showpiece ‘Big Bomb’ which was offloaded by Roger and originated in Boscombe Down or Farnborough. During World War II, numerous roads and operational structures were constructed on Foulness, including the Atlantic Wall, a stretch of reinforced concrete wall built specifically to practice breaching German defense lines before the D-Day landings. Weapons were tested against the wall’s durability in preparation for the D-Day landings. Also, there is a long straight stretch of road which runs diagonally from Courts End to Foulness point which lies at the extreme north east part of the island. Roger remembers this road well since took an opportunity to drive a green Jaguar XJS at the time when repossessed cars were stored on the island. This same stretch of road was used by Richard Noble when he tested his record-breaking car as part of his Thrust2 programme which brought the World Land Speed Record back to Britain in 1983.

Quay Farm

We headed west through Courts End and on the road which runs from the church to Quay Farm. We passed a field on the left where four pairs of houses once stood. They had to be demolished after the floods of 1953 as they were built of wood and lath and plaster and they rotted since they never dried out and were demolished. The farm is tucked away in the north-west corner of the island, close to the River Roach and opposite Wallasea Island. The road leading down to the Quay used to be the only public right of way where the grain used to be carried and loaded onto boats. People would also catch a ferry from the Quay to and from Burnham, Wallasea Island and Potton Island. It was quicker and more convenient to go to Burnham to shop than travel to Southend. Before all of the controls came in, Roger created some large fields for his wheat by filling up the ditches. There is a footpath which goes all of the way round to the top of the island but contractors have blocked access, temporarily for repair work. Built around 1800, the fifteen-roomed farmhouse now stands derelict and fenced off. Roger took on the tenancy in 1986 and put forward a proposal to rebuild the house. There are 74 steps from the back door to the toilet and there is a dormitory on the back which was used to accommodate seasonal harvest workers whilst employed on site. In 1986 Roger celebrated his 40th birthday here along with 120 guests. Before the floods, Quay Farm was quite a community with its own Church, Public House, School, Shop and Post Office. The community had to pull together, since the island was self contained with access to the mainland being somewhat restricted. David Bailey sent me a 3-fold brochure depicting a potted history of Foulness and 12 of the old buildings, but was not sure where it came from, only that it is very old. It showed how small the community was at that time. The community was dealt another blow with the closing of the George and Dragon public house and then to make things worse, Roger had to demolish the village hall on 24th January 2008 because of rotten wood. It would not have been cost effective to replace it because the number of visitors to the island had diminished through non compliance with the access rules to the island. Quay Farm is now only used for storage purposes, in fact on 30th June 30 1986 the tanker MV Kingsabbey  sailed off course and cut through Southend Pier between the old and new Pier Heads. Roger was asked by Southend Council if he would store the surviving massive timbers made of Greenheart because they sink in water. They  are piled up at Quay Farm to this day, to supply anybody who needs to replace the odd rotting timber or two.

Tree Farm

We proceeded east towards Tree Farm at  Courts end, this being Roger’s working Farm and Business premises, coming here in 1976. In 1988, he hosted a successful Rock & Roll Night when 600 guests were reported on the dance floor and 1688 pints of lager and bitter were consumed. He took us in to his large barn where he stores some of his grain and bails of hay which are stacked up ready to be shipped off to Holland and a lot of his wheat goes off to Algiers. More noticeable were his large toys, a Combine Harvester next to large state of the art tractor along with other heavy machinery such as the Fertiliser Spreader. Much more of this heavy machinery including a Bale Grab machine, and Concrete Crusher, Concrete Mixer, generators and pumps adorn his farmyard and other barns. Outside the large barn stands an old granary and the concrete moulds which are used to make concrete blocks. He took us into his office and quite noticeable to me were some pictures on the wall which were painted by Ron Clapp, who lived next door to me until he died. The style is quite unique and his paintings of local scenes are well known throughout the local villages. There are many other pictures and photographs on the walls including one taken of the two bridges over Havengore before the old one was demolished. We then went through the barn to his white weather boarded house and explained that the east facing side of the house shown above is dated 1633 and the west facing side 1976. There used to be a house at the back which was the workers’ quarters with a passage way through to the kitchen. He built and recladded the west facing side of the building at a cost of £22,000 taking 5 months of his life. The kerbstones between the house and barn were from Porters Grange when they cut through the underpass and the paving slabs were from the front of the Kursaal. The story goes that William Reeves, related to Anne Boleyn when she was at Rochford Hall built the west facing side in 1633.  It was built in three stages and half way up the next chimney stack is a heat chamber. He took us through the quaint old house.

Toyota 4x4 V8 Land Cruiser

Roger loves his Toyota V8 4.5 litre Land Cruiser which he bought from Graham Gooch complete with its Registration Plate, H15 BAT. He purchased his own plate, SI RRB to reflect that one day he might be called Sir Roger Burroughs. That was supposed to be one of Roger’s jokes. The vehicle has covered 125,000 miles and his family had three of these vehicles at one time. The 4x4 the Land Cruiser V8 was established in 2008 and over the years it has achieved legendary status for its rugged reliability to stand up against any terrain, its powerful performance and its luxury comfort and practicality. Photograph from Left to Right: Bob Stephen, Roger Burroughs, David Bailey, Barry Hale.

The Southend Story

Roger’s favourite publication is called ‘The Southend Story - A Town And Its People’ by Tom King and Kevan Furbank. The First  Edition of this 129 page Paperback was published in 1991 by Southend Standard Recorder and Southend-on-Sea Borough Council Marketing Department. The book portrays the vivid history of one of Britain's most colourful towns in a single volume, supported by scores of previously unpublished pictures. It is a story of mud to riches, of a town and its people as proud and indestructible as the Pier they created. Queen Victoria's charter unleashed a fierce determination to lead the county into the twentieth century. Journalists Tom King and Kevan Furbank have charted the growth of the town from its fledgling local government, through the Edwardian seaside boom and the dark days of two world wars, to the present day, as Southend faces new challenges for a new century. It is a story that every Southender will want to read, and every lover of nostalgia will want to possess.

Roger’s Official Roles

Roger takes a very active role in the running of various organizations including:

Great Wakering Rovers Football Club

Roger is Lifetime President of Great Wakering Rovers football Club at Burroughs Park, Little Wakering Hall Lane, Great Wakering, Essex. Burroughs Park was constructed in 1985 on the site of 104 disused allotments which the local council gave to the club. Roger is a former player (age 14 to 24) and Burroughs Park was named after him in recognition of his assistance to the club. The ground has floodlights and also boasts a clubhouse and tea bar. The highest attendance ever recorded was 1,150 for a pre-season friendly against Southend United in 2006. The club was formed in 1919 by soldiers demobbed after World War I and finding employment in the local brickfields. They first played in the Southend & District League, where they played until 1982, being the league's most dominant club especially in the 1960s and 1970s. In 1982 they switched to the newly formed Southend & District Alliance Football League, but this league folded in 1989. At this point the club decided to make the step up to intermediate level and join the Essex Intermediate League.

Rochford Hundred Agricultural Society

Roger is President of The Rochford Hundred Agricultural Society. For many years now he has organised local Ploughing Matches and two of them can be seen on YouTube, both hosted at Tree Farm, Foulness Island, Essex. Annual Ploughing Match 1984 Annual Ploughing Match 1995

Essex Young Farmers

Roger was President of the Essex Young Farmers in 2001 and 2002. They are a youth organisation made up of 16-26 year olds and, despite the name, you don’t have to be a farmer to join; absolutely anyone can be a member! Essex Young Farmers is run by its members for its members so everyone has the chance to have a say in what goes on. With 10 clubs across the county there really is something for everyone, be it organising events, playing sports, fundraising for charities or simply enjoying the social side of it all!

Other Projects and Activities

Through the years, Roger has been involved in various projects including the creation of Adventure Island on the seafront and the demolition of the old Kingsdown Special Needs School in Snakes Lane, Southend. Each year he replenishs the fine sand on the beach near the Pier and moves thirty six Sandhopper sailing craft, on behalf of Thorpe Bay Yacht Club, across the seafront in and out of the sea. He helped dig out the footings for the Royals Shoipping Centre and is often called upon to repair sections of seawall breaches. He is often called upon in emergency situations such as recovering the Shoebury Waterman’s Boat Trailer. In September 1987, Roger was contracted to remove a light aircraft which had crashed into what was then Mac's Garage in Eastwood Road. The aircraft was on a regular newspaper delivery run to Italy and had just taken off from Southend Airport when it lost an engine and caught fire. It is believed that the pilot who died in the crash made a  decision to steer his doomed plane towards a non residential site to avoid many deaths and injuries. A plaque in memory of the pilot was later erected on the site and today the plaque is located on a side fence in front of the entrance to Sainsbury’s Local Supermarket. More recently, Roger hit the headlines when he provided a hay lifeline to a Northumberland hill farmer. Rob Dyson, who farms a very remote spot at the heart of the Coquet Valley in Northumberland, contacted the NFU when it became clear he would run out of fodder for his 450 sheep and 25 cattle. Former National Farmers’ Union (NFU) county chairman Robert Stacey from West Hanningfield and Roger Burroughs, who farms on Foulness Island, donated 27 tonnes of hay for farmer Rob Dyson, just days before his supplies were due to run out. The hay arrived at the farm on Thursday 25 April 2013, having left the east coast at 3.30am, completing the 353-mile journey in 7 hours. Roger Burroughs said “He was more than happy to make the donation having had a long association with the livestock sector. Although we are all arable now, we used to have sheep and cattle, so when Robert Stacey contacted me to suggest making the donation, I was delighted to be involved. I know how hard livestock farming can be and obviously we’ve all seen how tough this winter has been on the hills. I was more than happy to match his contribution and make up the 27-tonne load. I’ve spoken to Rob Dyson and so know it is going to a good home. Our aim here is to help a fellow farmer in what is clearly a very difficult situation and encourage others to follow suit.” In January 2016, Roger’s son Jason, on behalf of QinetiQ, transported the carcass of a dead Minke Whale which had beached off Foulness for disposal. He used heavy-duty equipment to lift the carcass over the sea wall, and transported it to an ‘incineration facility’. Roger felt very priviledged when he was invited along as a VIP guest to Jimmy Greaves’ 70th Birthday Party at the  Indigo Theatre in the O2. A string of football legends turned out  to celebrate Jimmy’s 70th birthday, including Ron Harris, Peter Bonetti, Martin Chivers and Ossie Ardiles. Also Geoff Hurst and Martin Peters, scorers from England's World Cup final triumph over West Germany in 1966, were among the legends who took to the stage. Summary I would like to thank Roger for his time and sharing the concise account of his life and activities on the island. It was a wonderful opportunity for us all to share the experience of the oldest surviving and working farmer on the island. The kettle had been boiling but it was too late for tea since we were running late and had to leave for Landwick, having spent in excess of 4 hours with Roger.

Roger  Burroughs

Foulness Farmer & Contractor

Interview and Article by Richard Kirton Accompanied by Barry Hale, Bob Stephen and David Bailey Sunday 22 January 2017

I thought that I was getting up to speed with farming terminology until I met Carlo. I then had to adjust to his broad Foulness dialect but it did not take long. Carlo and his wife live in the beautiful and impeccably kept bungalow. His bungalow stands on the site of an old dairy. Carlo sees Foulness as a very unique island, both to live and work on. Despite that he could never convince his wife, Elaine, who he married in 1974, to move to the island. As the interview progressed, Carlo was always quick to correct me when I referred to him as a farmer. Although tractor driving was his speciality he regarded himself as just a farm worker and stressed the fact that there was a distinct demarcation between the owners or managers of farms and the workers. Carlo was born on Foulness Island while his father was working as a farm worker at Shelford Farm. They lived at Little Shelford until Carlo was 4 years with no running water, electricity or inside toilet. In 1948, Shelford Farm was demolished and the family moved to North Bungalow, Church Field, Church End, Foulness and this was luxury, since they had now had running water, electricity and a bath. From a very early age, Carlo always had a passion to drive a tractor. When he was 13 years old he worked on the farm during the summer holidays until he was 15. This gave him the money to buy his clothes and the opportunity to drive tractors. He left school and started working on the farm for I.F. Burroughs and Sons on Foulness Island. After 6 years he went to work for Belton brothers and did so for 21 years. Carlo took an interest in combines and in 1987 he started work for Robert Crawford as a combine demonstrator throughout Essex for 2 years. He missed working on the farm and started working for John Burroughs on a contract basis. He passed the HGV test which enabled him to offer his services as a Tractor and Lorry driver. Philip Burns and Robert Crawford helped him immensely and enabled him to acquire his own tractor. In the audio interviews, Carlo talks about the floods of 1953, the wet harvest of 1958 and the start of oil seed rape and pea vining on Foulness in the 1970s. He used to enjoy working in the harvesting gangs. After the floods of 1953 gypsum in large quantities was used to improve the soil. He also remembers the first light blue diesel major tractors coming on to the island and how 3 point linkages became extremely useful. One of Carlo’s many duties with other farm workers, included beating the ground to scare the pheasants into the air, to enable local gentry to shoot them. Activities such as these, emphasised how, back then, there was a distinct dividing line between the farmer and his farm workers. In 2001 Carlo was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the age of 56 and during his hospital treatment, Eric Dyer drove his tractor on his behalf. In 2010 Carlo’s cancer returned and C. Rayner came to the rescue and bought Carlo out including his tractor which allowed him to continue working but without the overhead of actually owning it. Today, Carlo competes in many local farming competitions and has won many trophies for his tractor driving expertise. These trophies are pictured above along with a photograph of Carlo and his wife Elaine. He pays credit to various people he has worked with during his career, for the help he was given during some difficult times. As reported in the East Anglian Daily Times on 1st November 2011, Carlo is featured in the above photograph with his Massey Ferguson 135 at the Mersea ploughing match in Chapmans Lane, Mersea Island. These ploughing matches often have up to 45 tractors and other odd-looking machines displayed, ranging in age from the 1940s to fairly modern machines. Carlo also featured on page 12 of the Massey Ferguson Magazine dated 21 March 2006 and the page can be viewed here. He is also pictured in several old Foulness Island school photographs in 1950, 1953 and 1954. As a young man, Carlo’s other passion was Speedway. In the earlier years he would cycle round the green in front of the George & Dragon Public House on Foulness with his friends and later progressed to motor cycles. I have thoroughly enjoyed talking to Carlo the ‘Tractor Driver’ and particularly felt very relaxed with the session in his summerhouse. Carlo would always remind me that he was just a farm worker but in my opinion he reached the pinnacle of his career and to this day at 72 years old, he still contracts out with his tractor. He stated that always wanted to drive tractors and there is a fine photograph of him in his gallery of the early years. He puts his happiness and success in life to many friends and colleagues who helped him along the way and not least to his loving wife Elaine, who has always been there to support him. Carlo Cripps Gallery - The Early Years Carlo Cripps Gallery - The Later Years

Carlo Cripps

Tractor Driver

Interview by Richard Kirton 23 March 2016

Peter John Harold Philpot’s grandfather, Algernon Philpot, started his career filling inkwells for a shipping forwarding company in London, called C. Shaw & Lovell. Algernon married and had 2 sons and 2 daughters, his eldest son Harold Ross Philpot, being Peter’s father. Harold went to Wye and studied agriculture and in 1937 he started farming 1000 acres on Potton Island. He purchased the island which included 10 acres of arable land with some marshland and paid £4.00 per acre. As the family had no money, he had to borrow £4,000 from an aunt and a further £4,000 from another aunt to buy cattle from Herbert May from North Devon. During this time, Peter’s grandparents lived in Muswell Hill and after his uncle left Mill Hill School in 1936-1937 he went to Kirkcudbright to learn about the drying of milk. At that time there was no thought of testing the powder for bacteria but in 1937 Unilever’s Stork margarine plant at Purfleet, who were one of our larger customers, began to talk about testing for bacteria. He was then sent off to Ayr to see how to test the powder, going by bus to Auchincruive where the Hannah Dairy Research had their establishment. Also, once a week he went by train to Glasgow to follow a course in Bacteriology at Glasgow Polytechnic and the West of Scotland Agricultural College. It so happened that Hannah Dairy Research had just begun a review of bacteria in milk powders, getting samples of powder from all the U.K. producers. Thus, when he left Ayr to establish a bacterial laboratory at Kirkcudbright he had a full knowledge of the other makers of milk powder. One incident whilst at Kirkcudbright illustrated the need for a laboratory on site. They were getting E. coli in some of the powder; this was serious as the Stork manufacturer did not want any E. coli in their powder. After the normal cleaning of the plant the procedure was to circulate a chemically treated water and then rinse the plant with tap water. After many swabs of various parts of the plant, it was found that the tap water had E. coli in it. Surprised at this, he went to the Council's health officer to complain, only to be told that the water came direct from a loch in the hills, with no filtering and that he saw nothing wrong with the water. When they stopped rinsing the plant, the problem stopped. All men in those days were required to register for National Service, the idea was for the conscripted men to have six months in the services, so he registered at Dumfries. Hannah recruited a girl to take his place in the lab. He left on 15th July 1939 to join the Kings Own Scottish Borderers at Berwick-on- Tweed with 149 conscripts, all Scots. Much to the disgust of the Scottish conscripts they were all sent south to join the Battalion Durham Light infantry. Harold, on leaving school, went to London University for a while before going to Wye Agricultural College when he took his B.Sc.(Ag.) after which he worked in the Fish Meal company. He realised that the production of fish meal at Stratford was limited by the raw material and because of its source the fish meal was of poor quality compared with fish meal made in Hull and Grimsby from whole fish not sold at auction. Harold thought up the name SeaMeal to cover a range of concentrated meal for farmers made up of fish meal and various vegetable proteins. The word SeaMeal is still used today. In 1936, Herbert May, a fellow director of both the Fish Meal and Milk Power companies, suddenly died. One of his interests to complement his farming in North Devon was sending fattening beef cattle to a farm he owned in South East Essex - Potton Island. His largest customer was the London Co-op. and their meat buyer would go to Potton Island to select cattle for slaughter. On the death of her husband, Mrs May tried to sell Potton Island but no-one wanted to buy. In order to help her out, my grandfather offered to buy the Island for half as much again as the Agricultural Mortgage Company valued the farm for loan purposes (they valued farms at 66% of what they thought they could sell for), so in 1937 Potton Island became the first farm bought by the Philpot family. Initially, Mr. Manton was appointed manager of the farm which then consisted of all grass except one 10-acre field of arable. Mr. Manton was on the Army Reserve List and was called up on the outbreak of war. Harold then left the British Fish Meal company and went to live on Potton Island, where he took Margaret after their wedding in March 1941. Along with his sister Ann, Peter was born whilst their parents lived on Potton Island. The island is protected by six miles of sea wall and the only access to it was by rowing boat or a large raft which was used for heavier goods. The rowing boat or barge had a cable for pulling it across by rope. When my mother and father moved in, they got stuck in the mud with the wagon and had to unload their household goods as the tide came up. In those days there was no electricity and only a small water pipe, a farmhouse, 2 farm cottages and some old buildings. Both of Peter’s parents worked very hard and his mother would also drive the tractors. When they first purchased the cattle from Devon, they were bought up by train and unloaded at Shoebury Station and driven along the road. His father would follow behind the cattle, paying out half-pennies and pennies if the cattle wandered in people's gardens and caused damage. They were then driven across Bentall’s land and assembled ready for crossing to Potton Island. Obviously, this could only be done by swimming them across at high tide with one boat upstream and one downstream to keep them in a narrow funnel. Obviously, if done at low tide all the animals would have been stuck in the mud. On the Potton side of the creek, there was a jetty where his father used to load wheat onto barges and send hay to London and bring back horse muck. Times were certainly not easy during those first years of farming on Potton with no electricity, paraffin lamps and water that used to freeze up. When aeroplanes were attacking London in the war, Peter was hidden under the stairs and on one occasion his mother and father found a dead German pilot with his parachute, in the creek. During the war there were hundreds of bombs dropped on Potton Island. When the German aeroplanes came over, the army from Shoebury Barracks used anti-aircraft artillery ("ack-ack") to attack. Some of the German pilots, experiencing this, decided to head back to Germany dropping bombs on Foulness, Potton and Wallasea in the process. The fields were covered with plenty of shrapnel and holes. After the war, Peter’s uncle, Peter Gordon Philpot, was demobbed with just a suit and a pay packet of £45.00 from which he purchased a set of Encyclopaedia Britannica. He came to help Peter’s father, Harold Ross Philpot, on Potton with the farming and became quite interested in sheep. Between them they put in a concrete hard (road) over to the Island with pipes underneath, allowing a certain amount of time to cross at low tide. Peter can remember once going across with his father who was wearing his waders and was giving him a piggy back, but they were both washed away. Peter’s mother was not a happy bunny and his father was more worried about losing his walking stick than him! There were several other incidents on the hard, one being when a Matthew's grain lorry with approximately 12 tons of load, broke its half shaft. They could not pull it out with the crawler because it just skidded on the concrete. His father rang Matthews and asked them to send another lorry to pull it out before the tide came up. On a different occasion a chalk lorry came off the road and they could not get it out before the tide came up, so it was under water for one whole tide. In 1946, Peter’s father took on a tenancy for 350 acres from Lord Petre at Writtle Park and the family moved to Writtle Park in 1947. The family moved into one of the houses and Peter’s grandfather Algernon, Uncle Peter and Aunt Elizabeth moved to the main house at Writtle Park with Sister Jean. It was a good job since they had the tenancy that enabled his Uncle to concentrate on Potton Island and his father on Writtle Park. He became Chairman of the Essex County National Farmers Union in 1956/1957. The devastating floods of 1953 completely covered Potton Island for six weeks with sea water and nearly finished the family off. There were seven breaches on Potton to the sea wall and they lost a lot of sheep and cattle. The force of the water was so great near the farmhouse that it washed half of it away and on one of the breaches a sailing boat was going up the river but ended up through the breach onto Potton. During the flood, the army only supplied them with WW1 landing craft which were not in very good shape. They loaded up this boat with sheep and Uncle and father and someone else were paddling/rowing to the sea wall when it hit a stake that was under the water and sunk. Father, Uncle and the other person had to swim for it, but they lost some of the sheep. It was a very hard time for those concerned because in places only the tops of the fencing posts could be seen therefore the cattle had to be manoeuvred through the gateways and swim them all to the sea wall. using the boat. At the time, there were about 250 ewes close to lambing at Potton. The remaining cattle were taken off the island and taken to the farm of Mr Carter of Harlow (Richard Carter's father). The ewes who could be persuaded to swim to the sea wall were taken to Writtle Park where we lambed them on about 15 acres. Later the sheep were taken to Hylands Park just outside Chelmsford and a friend of fathers, farmer Allison from Ongar. Peter’s father and uncle led parties of farmers who worked 24 hours non-stop to build temporary barricades and repair the sea walls to keep out the sea whilst naval pumps pumped water over the wall. The pumps were lifted in by helicopters and worked 24 seven for a very long time. The family were forever thankful and appreciative of the efforts of those farmers because without their help, Potton Island would have been lost for good. If the walls had not been raised to the height they are today, all the local areas would have flooded many times. A lot of land was taken to reconstruct the walls at this larger height and 5 bigger sluices put in to drain the water off, in case of flood. Today, only 3 sluices are working and the Ministry of Defence are undecided with what to do with the fourth. Peter is very much of the opinion that they should ensure that the fourth sluice works because if there was another flood it would be necessary to get as much water out of the sluices as quickly as possible. When Potton was eventually dried out, millions of worms ended up on the surface and thousands of seagulls and birds were feeding on them. During this time, Peter was a student at the Junior School, Mill Hill, Belmont. He can remember the head master, Mr Roberts coming to get him out of bed, take him to his office to reassure him that his mother, father and uncle were all okay but learning that the whole farm, 1,000 acres were flooded. When the land was dry, the Government supplied gypsum, a very dusty material. The family spread thousands of tons on Potton Island. On one occasion the wind was going the same way as the tractor and spreader, the driver did not realise he was at the end of the field and drove straight into the Rainbow Fleet. It was only when the water was around his ankles, did he grasp he was in trouble. Summary by Richard Kirton Today, Peter and his sons Christopher, Andrew and Stuart, farm a total of 12,800 acres through 27 farms in Essex and Suffolk. With careful strategic planning, land management and business diversification, the family continue to take their business ever forward. I was shown around the Barleylands museum and farming complex by Sandra Williams, Personal Assistant to Peter, who together with his family owns one of South-East England’s most popular educational farming and craft centre attractions, ’Barleylands’ near Billericay. The museum houses farming equipment from the past and in 2018, Barleylands was host to some 18,000 school students, 2000 teachers and 2000 parents. I was introduced to Peter’s Education Officer, Karen Watson who is always keen to speak to Head Teachers with a view to arranging educational visits for their students, where they can learn about the intricacies of past and present farming techniques whilst sharing hands-on experience with farm animals. Sylvia Kent, a Freelance Author and Journalist posted an article on her Blog covering the Essex Country Fair at Barleylands near Billericay during the weekend of 10th and 11th September 2011. The photograph highlighted above, shows the Philpot family with some of the grandchildren, anticipating a great weekend at their 25th Show at the farm. Philpot Family Gallery

Peter John Harold Philpot

Potton Island and the Philpot Family

Interview by Richard Kirton Barleylands, Billericay 06 March 2018

Everybody learns to adapt to the environment in which they were born and farm workers on Foulness Island are no exception. People outside of the island are informed through many excellent publications about life on the island but the audio clips above share the experiences of a man with fifty years experience working as a farm worker on the largest farm on the island. His future as the son of a farm worker was pretty much mapped out for him after leaving school, since there were very few employment opportunities on the island with limited public transport facilities to make it feasible to work on the mainland. This man is David Rippingale, aged 76 years, the son of Leslie Rippingale and Norah Hume and born on Foulness Island. In the early years, he lived at number 2, School Cottages which happened to be right next door to the school and he married Ruth Nicholls at St. Mary the Virgin Church in 1967. Their wedding reception was the last one to be held at the old Village Hall before it was demolished. Since 1967, David and Ruth have lived at Old Hall Farm Cottage (pictured left, as it looked in 2004) and still live there today. David worked for the Belton Brothers in the school holidays when he was 14 years old and at that young age he drove his first tractor. He remembers well, the cabless tractors which left him very much exposed to the cold, wet and windy weather of winter. It was almost 8 years before he got to drive a tractor with a cab. The first tractors he got to drive were a Ferguson TE20 and a David Brown Cropmaster. The Ferguson TE20 was an agricultural tractor designed by Harry Ferguson which was manufactured from 1946 until 1956. It was commonly known as the ‘Little Grey Fergie’ and was light- weight but effective and a popular collector's item for enthusiasts today. Pictured from left to right in the photograph to the right are: Graham Willsmer, Carlo Cripps, Joyce Pickering, David Rippingale and Eric Dyer. After David left school at the age of 15 he got a job working full time as a farm worker for the Belton Brothers, retiring after 50 years at the age of 65. When he started working on the farm, horsemen had mostly disappeared and his initial duties included tending cattle and geese and driving a tractor, some of the time working alongside Carlo Cripps. He finished up as a farm foreman and looking back to his starting days, there were up to to 15 farm workers but by the time he retired, only 4 workers were employed. Also, in those early days the Belton brothers ran 3 combines, each with needing three people. Today, there is just one combine with one driver. ‘Old Hall Farmhouse’ (left) and its adjacent cottage are pictured as they looked in the summer of 1969. They are situated on the other side of the road to what used to be the ‘George and Dragon’ Public House and its adjacent General Store. Old Hall Farmhouse is a white rendered building with a slated roof, built around 1850 and has a south facing front facade looking onto farmland over a low brick boundary garden wall which can just be seen in the foreground. The house is well set back from the public road and barely visible behind the trees. ‘Old Hall Farm Cottage’ (left of the Farmhouse in the left photograph) is believed to be dated 19th century but has changed several times through the years. The cottage was originally a red brick building with a slated roof, built as a ‘Men’s Kitchen’ to provide accommodation for casual farm workers, with just two rooms, one up and one down. Access to upstairs was by a ladder. In 1969 the cottage was rendered and painted red and sometime after 1970 it was painted white. In approximately 2004 the cottage was weatherboarded and painted white (pictured right in April 2016) in keeping with the traditions of the village, with interlocking tiled roof and PVC windows. Situated in the driveway to Old Hall Farmhouse and its Cottage, stands the old island Pumping Station which used to pump water up from a deep well into storage tanks which supplied most of the island with running water. An old photograph of the Pumping Station can be seen at the bottom of the page which clearly shows the water storage tanks as they were. Apart from the Broomway, road access to the island was non-existent before 1922, when the government opened a new road to the military facilities. Getting to school for David was not an issue but before the early 1920s all roads apart from the spine road were dirt roads and only existed between farms and from the farms to the sea wall. This meant that cyclclists had to use the paths which were made of shells, rather than the roads. There were planks of wood over the ditches and some children had to walk in all weathers, over two miles on these shelled paths, to get to school. No hard roads existed until the end of WWII when rubble from bomb damaged houses in London became available. Burnham was closer than Wakering, being just across the River Crouch with barges bringing goods to the island each week, hence each farm having vehicular access to the sea wall. Even though there were three shops on the island back then, the butcher from Burnham would call once a week to deliver orders from the previous week and take orders for the following week. The trip to the dentist on Burnham meant having to use a ferry to get to Wallasea Island and then another ferry to Burnham. In the middle of the nineteenth century there were three ferries to the island, from neighbouring Potton Island, from Wallasea Island (which landed on Foulness at Monkton Barns Quay) and from across the River Crouch at Burnham. It is now worth noting that the Victorian farm house at Monkton Barns, along with many other fine buildings are now abandoned with most in a state of disrepair. In his teenage and early twenties years, a trip with his friends to the Odeon cinema in Southend was a real treat, being somewhere to see popular singers and bands perform. The bus to Southend on a Saturday was always full and would return to Foulness about 11 p.m. giving ample time to get home after the show. There used to be two pubs on the island, the George and Dragon and the King’s Head but regrettably they are both now closed along with the school, shops and village hall. At least the Heritage Centre is still open and attracts many people from far and wide. During the floods of 1953, although most of the farm land was flooded, the majority of the farm houses were protected because they were built upon mounds, created from the earth taken from the creation of ponds nearby. The photograph above clearly shows an aerial shot of Churchend, Foulness with the church and rectory marooned on the right and Old Hall Farm opposite. Water never did enter either the Farmhouse or Cottage. Photograph courtesy of the Britain from Above website. David’s wife Ruth was keen to point out that, local author Johnnie Quarrel, wrote a book about Foulness titled ‘Portrait of Foulness’ and that whilst writing the book he would often call and do his research from their living room. In his book, he passionately paints his own picture of Foulness Island since he loved the island so much. Foulness Island is one of six islands lying between the rivers Crouch, Roach and the Maplin Sands, along with Wallasea, Potton, Rushley, Havengore and New England Islands. These islands are often referred to as ‘The Essex Archipelago’ and another Essex author and wildfowler, James Wentworth Day visited them on his travels many years ago, and a quotation below from his book ‘Coastal Adventure’ reads: "These islands [have] a curious, haunting fascination. Their treeless horizons, their immense spaces, the vision of haystacks and houses standing up bold out of the flat land, and the endless monotone of sheep's voices and birds' voices either appal you with their loneliness and desolation or lay such hands upon the heart that a man must return to the islands once he has known them.... to sense the silence, to smell the sea winds, to hear the chant of birds and the endless, immemorial, secret chuckle of the tides. It is a prairie of the sea, unlike anywhere else in England. There is a peace on these sea-marsh isles which no other part of England knows the peace of immense spaces; of a great wash of sea and sky; of mile on mile with neither house nor man nor road; the voice of a thousand sheep crying like an aerial undertone in the silence; the gleam of the sun on dykes and sea and tide-bared flat; the thin music of a little running wind creeping like a mouse through the long grass; the cry and wheel of curlew and shank against the dawn sky." Photograph Left The Ferguson TE20 or the ‘Little Grey Fergie’ as it became known, was a milestone, not only for Ferguson but agriculture in general. Photograph Right The long production run of Cropmaster tractors saw many new features pioneered by the company and did much to enhance the reputation for reliability and quality enjoyed by the David Brown tractor. With the introduction of the Cropmaster the company introduced the popular policy of including in the standard specification many items normally regarded as extras such as hydraulic lift, swinging drawbar and electric lighting. Footnote David says that he misses the old Foulness community spirit from back when the population of the island was much higher. According to the Census records, the population of Foulness has reduced from a peak of 754 in 1871, falling to 537 in 1901 and 212 in 2001. By 2011 it had reduced even further to 151. He has felt somewhat saddened in the latter years since Old Hall Farm Cottage is no longer just a short walk from the Bakers Shop, Pub, General Store, Village Hall, Church and School. The nearest shops are now in Great Wakering, almost 6 miles away. Even the survival of the Post Office is not guaranteed and if that goes, the only amenity to have survived will be the Heritage Centre. A few more photographs are shown below:

David Rippingale

Foulness Farm Worker

Interview by Richard Kirton 18 April 2016

Brian Shelley

Foulness Farm Worker

Interview by Richard Kirton 23 March 2016

Alec Willsmer

Farm Manager

Interview by Richard Kirton with Mary Willsmer, wife of the late Alec Willsmer 08 March 2016

Alec Walter George Willsmer was born in Barrow Hall Road in 1930. He was an only child, and married Mary Teviotdale in 1951. Alec was a farmer all of his working life, working initially for Fred Burroughs on Foulness Island as a cowman. He was there during the floods of 1953 and then spent three years working in market gardening on the old Crouchman site which is now the village primary school. From there he moved to East Hall Farm in Rainham and worked for four years, again in market gardening, growing runner beans, radishes, rhubarb etc., and leeks in water. His final position at East Hall Farm was as working foreman but was asked if he would like to return to Wick Farm, Little Wakering in 1967. He and Mary decided to move back to the area and initailly lived in Kimberley Road for the first two years until, in 1969, they moved into number 2 The Cottages, Little Wakering Wick Farm. During those early years, Mary often worked in teams, picking peas and the early and main potato crops. The pickers worked with a bag around their waste which enabled them to pick as quickly as possible since they were paid in tokens for the number of bags they filled during the day. The tokens were then exchanged for cash by Alec at the end of each day. Mary has fond memories of Star Lane Cottages where, from 1939 to 1943, she lived with her parents Edward, also known as Frank or Joe and Florence Annie Tiviotdale. The caption which accompanies the photograph reads “The Star Field and Cottages near Shoebury House in 1703 were in the heirs of Thomas Brown, gent. In 1731 this property, which is copyhold, together with two acres down Crouchman’s Lane were in Robert Kennett. The Star House was then described as lately erected. It was at one time licensed as a public house and a large cellar and remains of wine bins still exist.” The photograph above which was taken 1956-1957 shows Derrick Cripps, Alec Willsmer (back right), Renee Cripps, Dorothy Burgess and Christine Cripps. Mary who is now 86 years old shares many family photographs through the gallery below. Mary Willsmer Gallery Regrettably, Alec died in 2004 aged 74 but Mary continues to live in the same cottage on Little Wakering Wick Farm. It has been a real pleasure talking to her despite having quite recently broken her leg. Mary is an adorable lady who, even in recovery mode, made me feel very welcome as did Trish Sandle who has been assiting with her care.