THIS IS FINDON — www.findonvillage.com  created by Valerie Martin, contains scenes from her home village of Findon, West Sussex, U.K.

    HORACE HALE OF TOLMARE FARM

Copyright Valerie Martin 2004

Originally published in Along The Furlong in May 2004

A couple of years ago I had the good fortune to be contacted by a gentleman in nearby Rustington, who said he had discovered some interesting artefacts concerning Horace Hale of Findon in his loft.    It seemed an unlikely story but he was as good as his word and they were soon in my hands and I am indeed grateful to him.

Horace Hale was a gentleman with quite a pedigree and came from good farming stock and farmed in Findon.   Many members of his family were worthy citizens of the realm and held high public offices, both in the civilian and army services.  Below are paintings of his grandfather and grandmother...

and his maternal grandmother......

Here are Horace's parents in 1894 ....

To start this story, let me take you back to the day of Horace's birth.

It was very hot on 9th August 1884 and Maria Hale was making up the block of butter, already churned from the weeks supply of cream at her Epping Green Farm in Little Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire.   She had been busy for most of the morning and afternoon shaping and weighing it into 1 lb and ½ lb rolls for the regular customers to the farm.  

Her husband, Alfred, had been working with his horse in the fields all day getting the hay in before the next rain.   The couple retired that night but very soon Alfred was roused by his wife and had to fetch in the tired horse from the field and drive five miles to Hereford to summon the doctor.  

The baby (their second son) was born so close to midnight that no one really knew whether his birthday was 9th or 10th August 1884.   The matter was finally settled by the doctor saying he would date his account for services rendered as the 9th of the month.  The infant was child number six  in the steadily growing family and had four sisters and one brother awaiting his arrival.

The baby caught a cold and eventually developed bronchitis, which stubbornly refused to respond to the treatments of the day and racked the little body. There remained not much hope for the youngster's survival.   The parson was sent for the rites of baptism and the baby was named Horace. 

Young Horace survived, even though considered a bit of a weakling by some.

Growing up on the farm the young Horace assimilated facts on animal husbandry that were to be the foundation of his future life in Findon.

The Hale family left Epping Green Farm on New Year's Day in 1892 when Mr  Hale took over the new farm known as Bramfield Place in Bramfield, Hertfordshire.   Horace was seven years old.

After leaving school, Horace found that he had more or less drifted into becoming coachman-in-general to the family.   This occupied most of his time and kept him away from other tasks of work on the farm.   The Hales used young horses that sometimes needed quick action to control — and his father preferred not to drive them himself.  His mother and sisters also relied on him to drive them when they wanted to go on shopping errands or to catch a train.

It was not long before Horace's main interest was cattle.  His father's dairy herd was composed of crosses of the Shorthorn breed but Horace thought they lacked in character and were nondescript in their appearance.  

Soon, a herd of purebred Dutch cattle took his fancy and he bought a bull calf.   In time, his father agreed to his crossing bulls of this breed with his predominately Shorthorn dairy herd on the farm.     By this year his herd contained many black and white animals.

Findon was struck by a frightening thunderstorm in June 1910.    It lasted for ten terrifying hours.    After a lull in the weather, Hugh Richard Penfold Wyatt of the Cissbury Estate discovered that during the storm, sixteen of his prize sheep had been struck by the lightening and had perished out on the downland.      It seems that Horace's cattle survived in tact.   

Horace was by now thinking of getting married to Mary Brown (known as May) the eldest daughter of William McCredie of High Auchniel, Wigtownshire, Scotland.  He started sorting out the possibilities of how and where he could find a suitable farm and commence the establishment of a purebred herd of his favourite black and white  cattle.   

It was at this juncture that he heard of a 500-acre downland establishment in Findon that would be vacant to let at Michaelmas 1911 — but this was only considered suitable to run sheep.  Finding the necessary capital to finance the Findon project was the greatest problem as his personal savings could be reckoned in three figures.   Fortunately, his father came up trumps and agreed to advance £4,000 at 4% interest to get him started.

Having progressed so far, Horace approached the owner of the farm in Findon to find out if he would be willing to accept him as his future tenant.  

The owner was Colonel Margesson of Findon Place, who quite understandably argued that coming as Horace did from the north of London to the South Coast, he would discover farming conditions very different.   When he heard that Horace's intentions were for a dairy farm instead of one for sheep, he threw up his hands in horror.   He honestly thought the young man's intentions would meet with little success in Findon.

After this interview, Horace returned home to Hertfordshire and talked the matter over again with his father.   After evidently giving the subject considerable thought, the older man wisely suggested that Horace should invite the Colonel to come to visit them at Bramfield.   The intention being that the Colonel could then see for himself how the Hale family farmed in their part of the country.   It would give him more of an idea as to whether or not their methods would be likely to succeed if transferred to Tormare Farm (Horace knew the farm as Tormare and not Tolmare as it is called today).

To Horace's surprise, the retired army officer accepted the invitation to visit and arrangements were duly made.   On the appointed day, the Colonel arrived by an early train at Hertford Railway Station to be met by Horace who drove him out to the Hale farm.  

The Colonel spent the majority of the day inspecting the growing crops and the large dairy herd.   The harvest had been completed at the time of his visit and he was surprised with the size and number of stacks of corn and hay.  It did not pass unnoticed that he was especially impressed by the Hale's big traction engine and threshing machine.   These were busily engaged in dealing with some of the newly harvested crops while endless sacks of grain were being carried to the Hale barns and granaries. 

However,  the Colonel came up with another objection — having learnt from previous experience, he felt that he could only let Tormare Farm to a married man.   This did not stump Horace as he was able to reply that he was going to be married before setting out on any new venture.   

They had some refreshments and Horace was duly accepted as a tenant of Tormare Farm.   The Colonel told him that the name "Tormare" indicated that it was a hill by the sea.  

Before completely agreeing the terms with Horace, the Colonel insisted that Horace should continue to run a flock of sheep on Tormare.   Horace consented — but was not persuaded to give up his original idea of starting a herd of purebred black and white Dutch cattle.  

In return the Colonel said he would give Horace's ideas a fair trial and he promised that if he were successful he would build a new cowshed at Tormare to house the cattle.  He would also fence in part of the downland so that the cows could be turned out to graze.

All of this left a great deal to be settled before final plans were completed and Horace's next step was to arrange to show May, his wife to be, their new home.  The outgoing tenants were Mr and Mrs Salway and they were good enough to welcome the young couple on arrival in Findon.   

Firstly they showed them over the house where they were to live — this was Huntmans House on the Long Furlong road and was where foxhound packs had been kept in the past.  The paved yards and buildings that had housed the pack still existed with a large exercise paddock, surrounded by a high wall built of Findon flints. 

All seemed to be in good repair and to Horace's surprise he discovered two varieties of fig trees growing in a sheltered sunny spot.   It so happened that they were all bearing a luscious crop of ripe fruit.   Horace had never seen figs growing before and immediately sampled them and found them delicious.  

Nearby were two flint cottages that went with the farm, the main buildings of which were over the hill about five minutes walk from the house, where there were four more cottages.  This made six in all for Horace's future agricultural workers.   

The wedding day was fixed for 12th September 1911 and took place at Ide Hill in Sevenoaks, Kent and Horace gave himself three weeks' honeymoon holiday in the Channel Islands before embarking on his married life in Findon.  

A minor hitch occurred which caused the honeymoon to be held up.  The reason being that Horace had agreed to keep a flock of sheep on Tormare but had not considered where to buy them.  Upon making enquiries, he discovered that the Sheep Fair on Nepcote Green was taking place on 14th September 1911 and there would be thousands of sheep auctioned.   

Colonel Margesson thought the visit to the Sheep Fair so vitally important that he booked Horace and May into a Worthing Hotel for two nights before they set out for their real holiday in Jersey and Guernsey.   (He had also remembered to give them a silver salver as a wedding present).

Horace attended the Sheep Fair (leaving May at the hotel).  There were 8,000 sheep being auctioned and Horace purchased 200 Southdown breeding ewes on the spot.  Upon returning to the hotel he found his new wife was being referred to as "the deserted bride".... but all was well and they soon set out to join the cross channel boat leaving Southampton.

Horace had already bought his precious cattle but left them with the owner until he was ready to install them at Tormare, on the understanding that any calves born in the meantime would be his —  but all milk produced while the cattle remained on the farm would belong to the farmer.    When instructions were received for delivery to Horace, the seller was to put them on the train at Hertford Station bound for Worthing.   

Little did Horace realise at the time that the simple document setting out the transaction would become historic.   A facsimile of the agreement was printed in the Farmers' Weekly some thirty-eight years later and became generally known in the dairy industry of this country as the Birth Certificate of the Kingswood Herd.  

Upon returning from his honeymoon, Horace set about building up a purebred herd of Dutch cattle that was to become second to none.   He employed agricultural workers, and procured new farm implements and horses to carry out the work he intended to undertake. 

Horace was told afterwards that the Findon village farmers ridiculed him for thinking he could turn a rather poor downland sheep farm into a dairy concern.   Apparently, a gathering of farmers at the local market considered that it would be doing him a kindness if they sent a deputation to acquaint him with the impossibility of being able to make a success of his project.   They predicted that he would be bankrupt within three years.

The cattle bred at Findon during the next ten years were to become famous and known as Britain's Finest Dairy Herd and the first winner of the 500 Guinea Gold Challenge Cup in a competition open to all Britain and all breeds.

Horace and May had two sons and three daughters.  Four of them were born in Findon and were — Joan Mary (born 6th September 1912); Horace Ian (16th August 1915); Alfred Alister (30th April 1918) and Marian Jane (23rd February 1922).

There is a story of a ghost at Huntsman's House and you can read about this by clicking on The Huntsman's Ghost — although there was no mention of a ghost in the days when the Hale family were in residence.

In 1920 Horace was a member of the Findon Parish Council and he farmed at Tormare Farm in Findon until 1922; at Kingswood, Linfield, Surrey between 1922 and 1949;  of Rocks Cottage in Limpsfield, Surrey 1949-62, and at Ashgarth, Haslemere in Surrey.  Horace became the President of the British Friesian Cattle Society 1948/49.

Horace's wife died on 4th June 1959 at Rocks Cottage, Limpsfield, Surrey and her ashes were interred in the Garden of Remembrance in Tandridge Churchyard, Nr. Oxted in Surrey.

Horace had a long and chequered life and lived to see six successive monarchs on the throne of England.

The sign outside the driveway to the farm now says Tolmare and not Tormare.   I wonder how the change came about?

Gladys Lambourne who was born in Findon in 1929 tells me that Findonians pronounce it as "Tormare" in spite of the sign saying "Tolmare.   It was in the mid-1920s that a farm worker, Gilbert Weston, came with his family to live at Tormare.   One of his sons, John (known as Jack) met Gladys' mother and they later married.    At Tolmare there was an old horse of which Jack was very fond.    When a baby girl was born to him and his wife, she was duly named after the horse, Gladys!

Continue if you would like to now read Tales of Old Tolmare.

This is Findon — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.