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From West Hill in 1997, across Nepcote to Chanctonbury on the skyline — extreme left. |
THIS IS FINDON VILLAGE ― These Findon Chronicles are created by Valerie Martin and are progressively growing to be the only record of life around Findon, West Sussex, England. Everyday stories about real people..... in fact, a potted history of the village. The topics today, are the history of tomorrow.
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From West Hill in 1997, across Nepcote to Chanctonbury on the skyline — extreme left. |
TALES OF OLD TOLMARE
Copyright Valerie Martin 2003
I have always wondered if sheep farming continued for a while at Tolmare after the days of Horace Hale. It has always been famously known as cattle country.
Below is reputedly a photograph that may depict a shepherd at the then named Tormare Farm in 1929.... which rather confirms my theory.
click on pic to enlarge
Tales of Old Tolmare is the title that Norman Allcorn gave to his reminiscences of working at Tolmare Farm and I see no reason to change it.
Norman came to live in Findon in the 1960s and worked with the cattle at the farm and grew to be fascinated by the prize herd owned at the farm by Horace Hal e earlier in the century.
When Horace first arrived to farm in Findon he described himself as an "innocent abroad" but he went on to breed and build up a pure bred herd of Dutch cattle which was second to none. It was more than he had even dreamed of being able to do.
In 1920 and 1921 he received a gold cup for the best dairy herd in the country won by his Kingswood herd and had proved since 1911 that high yielding dairy cows could be kept on the exposed Findon downland which was formerly only trodden by flocks of sheep.
In partnership with Colonel Ulric OliverThynne of Muntham Court Horace had an intriguing arrangement between a working farmer and a military gentleman — who had two of the finest Friesian herds of cattle in the country at that time.
Norman recalls a little story about one of these cows and her daily walk to the Tolmare dew-pond:
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THE 3,000 GALLONER By 1960 I was looking after a herd of Friesians at Rogate on the Sussex/Hampshire border. My relief milker was a man in his sixties named Ruben Barnard. For many years Ruben had been Head Herdsman at Cowdray Park. "But what about previously?", I asked him. "I came from a place I don't expect you've even heard of", he replied. "A little village tucked up in the Downs behind Worthing called Findon. When I was a young man I worked on the Muntham Estate for Colonel Thynne. The Thynne's were a branch of the same family who own Longleat in Wiltshire. They even had their own private cemetery, high on the Downs overlooking the village. The Thynne's were buried in a compound in the middle, with their retainers to one side, a little further out and down the hill. The Colonel had one of the best Friesian herds in the country at this time. We had the first cow in Europe to give 3,000 gallons of milk in a year. It was my job to look after her. I groomed her, fed her and milked her three times a day. In the mornings I'd take her for a walk along a track over the Downs, past the burial ground, and on to a dew-pond by the main road. Here she would have a good drink and then wander back, browsing as she went". Norman Allcorn.
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Below, Norman describes the milking parlour built for housing Horace Hale's cattle earlier in the century....
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AN EXCEPTIONAL COW STALL In 1965 I obtained a contract to milk and managed a herd of 150 Friesians at Tolmare Farm, Findon. The farm lies on free draining chalk and was normally very dry apart from a persistent puddle at the entrance from the road. During the winter the cows were housed in a large nearly new "Atcost" barn constructed of concrete beams with an asbestos roof. The milking parlour and collecting yard were in an older building of brick walls and a boarded roof covered with red/brown scallop shaped felt tiles. This had obviously been the original cow stall for about forty cows tied up in two rows. There had been a wide central gangway between the gutters with a feeding passage along the outside walls. A two roomed dairy, feed store, loose boxes, large loft, stationary engine with corn grinder and tank for collecting rainwater completed the complex all under one roof. When built it must have been a model set-up for milk production. The local builder, Mick Ockenden, told me, "These bricks are very hard and I don't know where they came from although my family built this building. I remember my father saying that the bricks were difficult to get because of the outbreak of the first World War". In all the farm ran to some 1,000 acres towards and around the village including pig unit at Kingwood opposite the Fire Station. Norman Allcorn.
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Continue if you would like to read about The Day the Hillside Ran with Milk.
This is Findon Village — www.findonvillage.com is a continually growing record created by Valerie Martin exclusively for documenting life in Findon.
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Do let me know of anything you hear about Findon - not too controversial. Please note that opinions expressed in the Findon Chronicles are not necessarily reflective of my own thoughts.... but just sometimes they might be! |
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