A Family Farm is so much more than the here and now
A family farm is often described in terms of type of farm, livestock, arable, hill farming or sometimes a farm is imagined in terms of seasons, lambing, shearing, harvest, autumn sowing and preparing for winter. Some may just think of farming in terms of hours worked or working in all weathers which is undoubtedly correct. But a farm and farming is so much more than that and alongside all of the work, the hours and the seasons, is a much bigger picture.
Farming is also about planning for the future and for a future way beyond what we can see. We plant trees knowing that we may not be the person who sees their full maturity. We build and maintain traditional dry stone walls because we want them preserved in our landscape and to be there in the years after we are gone. We care for and pour love into our soil knowing that someone else will be farming and looking after that land long after us. And, perhaps most importantly, we pass on knowledge, we pass on what our father told us – what won’t grow where, little details to be remembered, we tell stories, and then there’s our ideas and plans we would like for the family farm, but very often not knowing if they’ll happen or not.
Generational farming isn’t simply about one family continuing to work the same piece of land. It’s about each generation building and leaving something for the next – whether that’s a well-maintained field, a pedigree flock of sheep, an exceptional line of tups, a new building, a stone stile or a well laid hedgerow. It’s about family heritage, pride in everything we do, leaving a legacy and sowing the seeds for the generations who will follow us.
Ridley’s Rock – A Little Piece of Family Farm History
Of course there are some things on a farm that have been there for as long as anyone can remember and blend in so well you barely notice them. Small gateways from a time when equipment was so much smaller, weathered buildings, well-worn tracks and ancient trees that have watched generations of the family come and go.
And then there are some the things that carry a story with them, and each family farm will have their own stories that only they know and are personal to them. A tree set down where a faithful pet was buried or a tree planted to celebrate an occasion, a meaningful field name, etched initials on the side of a barn, a welly print or foot and handprint in concrete, and of course there’s the annual markers on door frames showing just how tall each child had grown….they’ll still be there if you look closely enough.
One of those farming stories at St Oswald’s is about a rather large stone that we now call Ridley’s Rock. It’s not particularly remarkable to look at, in fact, if you passed it without knowing its story, you’d probably just think ‘well that’s a big rock’. But for us, it has become a small but important reminder of the generation, the person, who came before us, the plans they had, and how sometimes those plans can take years to come to fruition.
A stone that had been waiting for its place
The story of Ridley’s Rock began more than 40 years ago and while ploughing one of the fields at St Oswald’s Farm, the tip of a stone appeared and once it had been unearthed, it became clear that this was no ordinary stone – it was huge and weighed more than five tonnes. Back then moving something of that size wasn’t exactly a straightforward job, particularly with the machinery available at the time. It took two tractors, chained together, just to shift it to the side of the field where it remained for over 40 years.
John’s Dad, Ridley, had always spoken of how he wanted to move the stone to the top of a mound in the field called The Whins. It is a particularly good spot here at St Oswald’s as it gives far-reaching views across the surrounding countryside, and Ridley had hoped that one day the stone could sit there and enjoy the view. Unfortunately, the right equipment was never quite available to make that final move happen.
Forty years later…
Fast forward to 2026 and the story continued – John decided it was time to finish what Ridley had started and with Grant’s help, the correct and somewhat bigger equipment and a little bit of determination, the stone finally made its journey to the top of the mound in The Whins.
After all those years, Ridley’s Rock was finally where he had always wanted it to be. There was something rather lovely about seeing it sitting there at last and not because moving a five-tonne stone is particularly exciting in itself but because it felt like completing a piece of an unfinished plan. A plan made by one generation that had now finally been carried out by another.
And that, in many ways, is what a family farm is all about. Ridley never got to see his plan completed, but more than 40 years later, John and Grant were able to make it happen and of course the stone and the story will remain for generations to come.
We decided that this lovely spot needed to become a place that could be enjoyed, maybe a place for thoughtfulness and we have now placed a bench there, giving anyone who visits here a place to stop for a while and enjoy the view- they may know the story of Ridley’s Rock or they may just wonder why there’s big rock and a bench on a mound.
Looking back – and looking forward
Farming families so often accumulate stories. Some are big stories, involving major changes to the farm. Others are much smaller – a particular field, an old piece of machinery, a favourite view, a tree planted years ago or, in our case, a five-tonne rock that took more than 40 years to find its final resting place.
But those stories matter. They are the links between the generations and a reminder that the farm you see today has been shaped by the people who have worked and loved it before us.
We now see our younger generation beginning to make their mark on the family farm, their ideas, their vision, with Grant, Megan, Isla and our Grandson Wilfred, maybe we see more than one generation ahead who will go on to care for St Oswald’s. Perhaps they’ll have their own ideas about what should happen here, we don’t know what farming will like in the future but what we do hope is that they’ll sit on that bench and remember the story of Ridley’s Rock and all that it stands for.
