News

Frank Pitkin NDA 61-63

In response to your request I’m jotting down a ‘contribution’ to the Newsletter which hopefully makes sense, as follow:

I’m a 1961-63 NDA old student & fingers crossed, still going strong.

I see you, Graeme, are based in Lowestoft, a place which immediately brings back awesome memories of our Shutts 1963 Easter rugby tour! In all my life I've never ever been so cold, but of course we had fantastic terrific fun, super rugby, apart from the odd broken leg! A great tour! See Neil Hampson’s piece later for more details on this incident and a team photo too!

It’s been embarrassingly long since my last Newsletter foray - in fact for many years I was the 61-63 cohort ‘Course Rep’ & surprisingly supplied lots of good, most interesting, readable content from a dozen or more old students - it was fun stuff!

But somehow, I guess with other priorities I ceased pulling it together about 15 years ago. As a result I’ve lost touch apart from couple: Peter Pharaoh, David Jones & John Pritchard. Perhaps this is a good opportunity to restart & anyone reading this from 61-63 may have a chance to get in touch frank@frankpitkin.co.uk, please?

It was a brilliant era; great bunch of guys, super fun, rugby, cricket & I seem to remember something about several girls colleges in Bedford! But most importantly we had the benefit of the stunningly impressive & refreshingly likeable Principal, Ken Russel. He was a star.

As for me, I've failed to retire; living in north Bucks close to the Chiltern Hills, doing same work as for the last 40 odd years opening new markets for heavy construction machine stuff in mainly China, NE Asia & Africa & love it!

Also still a long serving, active governor of Berkshire College of Agriculture; a superb institution probably well known to many readers of this newsletter? Equally super enjoyable & rewarding is the pro-bono work with Min of Agr. Uganda expanding agriculture mechanisation - although due to Covid 19 it’s been a total, utter wash-out this year, but the future is surely optimistically bright; that’s life!

Very best, Frank

Neil Hampson NDA 62/64

Rugby Tour Lowestoft Easter 63 I broke my leg in the first game on Good Friday Morning and spent two days with the lads helping me through the pain by bringing endless pints of beer. Eventually my leg was put into plaster on Easter Monday. THEN – Steve. Ford broke his Leg!!!!! In the Monday Game. PROBLEM :- I had travelled to Lowestoft with Steve in my Mini Van - How to get Home?

Shuttleworth Tour Easter 1963

David Thomas, Duncan Robinson, Tim Vigus, Dave Prothero all NDA 62/64 And Ian Vigus FC 87/88

This team enjoyed their annual reunion with a day’s shooting at Tim’s family farm in Tiverton, Devon. Son Ian runs the shoot and by all accounts the birds are ‘Challenging’. The older the team get the more ‘challenging’ the shooting. Photo kindly provided by Tim’s brother Willie. Note the cap worn by Ian. We have a few left for sale so contact Sarah Perrett for details (see merchandise page for contact details).

L/R David Thomas, Duncan Robinson, Tim Vigus, Ian Vigus, Dave Prothero

John (Alf) Dickson NDA 64/65

What follows is my attempt to submit an article for publication which is an attempt to recall my memories of a glorious year at Shutts, cut short by a total lack of knowledge of chemistry having ditched it at school in the third year and culminating in the writing of my name in the first year exams and leaving the room!! Sad to say, Ken did not invite me back for the second year; I went back to the farm where I belonged.

Recently, through Dave Valentine, I was directed to two smashing books by Rob Grindal, 63 to 65. They are great stories of Rob growing up on the farm and life thereafter; I could relate to so many of his experiences growing up and working in agriculture in that day. In the course of the book, Shuttleworth and the Sugarbeets were mentioned, a subject still near to my heart. Rob recently suggested I put down on paper my thoughts and recollections of those "heady" days when I was privileged to be the lead singer for the group and what follows is my attempt at that, here goes.....

I was walking to my Triumph Tr2A sports car, 2" Burgess straight through exhaust pipe, you could hear me passing Cardington Hangers Mike Slack said, when I heard the sound of music; not in the hills, but in a room nearby. As an avid fan of Chuck Berry/Beatles and Rollong Stones, I went to the door, listened and then walked in. Adrian was on lead guitar, Pete Selby on rhythm guitar, Dave Harris on bass guitar and Chalky White on drums.

Adrian's surname eludes me for which I apologise, but I am 76 !!! After a while I asked if they wanted a singer; well, I had been in the church choir a few years previously. Adrian very generously said yes and I crooned away, in my element, only to be brought back to earth as I didn't know the words to most of the current tunes being played. However, I did know the words to "Jonny B Goode " by Chuck Berry, and so began one of the Sugarbeets best known and remembered songs. Adrian was superb on all the riffs and we began to gel as I learnt the words to such songs as “There is a house in New Orleans”, “Heartbreak Hotel”,“She loves

you yeah yeah yeah”. There were other songs by the Kinks, Chuck, Rolling Stones and we could soon play for about half an hour.

We were approached to play in the Tavern; the PE College and TT College soon flocked to our nights and seemed to really enjoy the music. I remember dear Henry Bucknall taking us all to London in his big car to pick up a new set of drums for Chalky, and we were asked to play at Bedord Corn Exchange as support act to the West Indian Steel Band who were guesting there; they were extremely popular at that time. All went really well and we started our slot with our Jonny B Goode, everyone was jogging on the dance floor, when suddenly the sound and lights went off, power cut?? no, one of our own who didn't approve of the group had pulled the plugs out. I heard he recently departed us so I will not mention his name as he can no longer defend himself, but I never forgave him!!

We were invited to play at the Summer Ball and that was marvellous, with the Wurzles, a professional group sadly lacking their lead singer, Adge Cutler. We played at quite a few venues and were due to play during the holidays for Dave Harris at his 21st. Sadly I blew a cylinder head gasket on the A1M near Doncaster and had to miss that.

Those, in a nutshell, are memories; anybody else with more memories please publish them to the Shutts newsletters, good or bad, well not too bad.

Cheers to you all

Chris Fyson (65-67)

In response to your request for items for the Newsletter I thought some of your readers might be interested in how the Covid 19 virus is impacting us in the southern hemisphere.

There are three Shuttleworth alumni from my era that I am aware of living in Western Australia: Mike Clark and myself, both were two year attendees from 1965-67 and Roger Harper who was a one year in 66-67. We live only about 3km apart in the northern areas of Perth.

Western Australia could almost be regarded as a separate country – and many of us wish it was!! We have a very sparsely populated land border of 3500 km with the Northern Territory and South Australia, with two only sealed roads crossing the border, the Eyre Highway in the south, the Great Northern Highway across the Kimberley into the Northern Territory, and an unsealed road through the Centre. These road borders were all closed to general traffic in April and are still closed by police-manned road blocks. The rest of our border is sea.

Western Australia is the export engine room of Australia exporting massive tonnages of iron ore, nickel, gold, LNG and cereal crops, mainly wheat and malting barley, beef and wool. Then of course there is our premium wine production, so we are pretty self-sufficient for the essentials of life in non-manufactured products.

Our closed borders initially included internal movement restrictions and closed pubs, restaurants and sporting venues. These restrictions were eased when there was no evidence of

community spread and we are now more or less back to normal with ‘social distancing’ practiced and entertainment venues not yet back to full capacity, but enough to get by. We are much better off than those on the other side, with Victoria in particular suffering the worst restrictions, with tight lockdowns as they try to contain the community spread of the virus.

Our national sporting codes are operating in quarantine hubs in Queensland, NSW, South Australia, WA and the Northern Territory, which is a logistical nightmare and makes for very unpredictable results!

On the positive side, West Australians are visiting their own State instead of going up to Bali, and we have a lot to offer being 1/3 of the country land mass. To put this into perspective it takes three full days to drive on open, relatively empty roads from Perth to Kununurra, some 3200 kms passing through a handful of townsites en-route. The route also passes many stunning areas of natural beauty, a host of the best beaches in the World, some 80 km long, fantastic open sea fishing, swimming with whale sharks, world class surfing breaks and many other fascinating attractions that many West Australians are seeing for the first time!

On the agricultural front Australia is expecting a record grain harvest as the whole country has had winter rains for a change! The rub is that there is a shortage of labour to drive the harvesters, called headers here. We rely on back packers and seasonal workers to gather in the grain harvest, man the grain receival silos, tend to vineyard management and provide the labour for fruit picking. Many of our truck drivers come from interstate to drive grain trucks and general mine haulage road trains. I almost feel like I should pull on the boots and give a hand driving a header but having been out of the game for over fifty years I would probably be more of a liability than an asset!!

When things within Australia will ease up I don’t know; we hope before Christmas as we have children in the Northern Territory and NSW that we have not seen all year and many families are in the same boat. Likewise international travel is also a long way off so visiting family in the UK is off the agenda for a while. In the meantime we try and stay virus free and enjoy a reasonably relaxed life in what is probably the best place on the planet to see this bug out of the global system.

To all Shuttleworth alumni stay safe; those of our vintage particularly as we are in the more ‘vulnerable’ age bracket.

Kind regards Chris Fyson

Managing Director PO Box 415 Vier Pty Ltd North Beach 9 Sandover Dr WA 6920

Karrinyup, WA 6018 0418 945 393 +61 8 9448 4619

cfyson@vier.com.au

Colin Racey Rep 65-66 Farmers Course, Huntingdon.

I am enjoying retirement after working with my Father and brothers. Four years ago I decided to retire, leaving my brother John on his farm and the family land.

My wife Judith and I are now able to spend more time together enjoying holidays even in July and August, a first after at least 50 harvests at home.

We celebrated our 50th wedding anniversary in 2019. Much of our time is spent with our three daughters and their families. I enjoy gardening, fishing and watching our grandsons playing cricket, rugby and football. I might also confess to chasing combines and big tractors, Case quad tracks etc. easy to find in Huntingdonshire, sad isn’t it?

With brother John still farming and with a farming son in law I still have plenty of contact with farming and country life.

Our daughter Alis has lived in Australia for 10 years with her husband and now with two daughters; they live near the coast in Burleigh Heads near Brisbane. We have stayed with them several times visiting Sydney, Melbourne and flying to Longreach, the home of Qantas in the outback; one of the highlights of our trip was Christmas morning in the ocean before turkey in the BBQ - yes they do have big Barbies, something I will never forget!

Sadly we are not able to visit Australia due to the Covid situation; we have been content at home going for walks here and on the beach in North Norfolk; we are lucky to live in the countryside.

Our eldest grandson is continuing the farming tradition having just started at Harper Adams and by all accounts has settled into Student life!

I am pleased to say I have kept in touch with Roger Middleditch who like all farmers is struggling to drill his wheat.

colinracey2@btconnect.com

Roger Middleditch (FC 65-66)

Still married to Gill, 50 years next year all things being equal! We have three children, two girls and son Christopher who, following Harper Adams, is now pretty much running the business. Still farming a mixture of owned, tenanted, FBTs and Contract farming across around 4500 acres in the Southwold and Beccles area. Still get a buzz from being involved, especially when we have had nearly 9 inches of rain since late September! Keep in touch with David (Fancy) Philp and hoping to catch up when we visit the grand children who live not far from Marlow.

Peter Rollings (NDA 65-67 ).

Dear Graeme, I assume you are still carrying out your valuable duties as Editor of the Newsletter !! I for one look forward to receiving it each year and catching up on news of old friends, both from college days and other contacts in the industry, (although inevitably I suppose given how long ago it was since we were at Shutts - is it really 53 years since we left !! - the quantity gets slightly less.)

For what it's worth, a few snippets for you, which I leave you to use or not as you see fit.

After a career spent with BOCM PAULS and associated companies, now fully retired and still living in Rufforth near York. After various roles in sales and regional management around the country I was part of the team that completed a management buy out of the company in 1988, and eventually ended up as Feeds Director (chief Operating officer in modern parlance) responsible for the day to day running of the business nationally. Retired from full time work in 2006 but continued as Non Executive Director until we sold the business to ForFarmers in 2012. I had been involved in the NPA (National Pig Association ) since its formation in 1999, as a result of the then crisis in the pig industry, and continued as a Board member and chair of the Allied Industry Group until 2015. Since then have got involved in local issues, leading a team to produce a Neighbourhood Plan for the area (a task that was both rewarding in terms of giving local people a real say in the future of their community but at the same time immensely frustrating in dealing with the systemic bureaucracy of our civil service) and have now ended up as Chair of the Parish Council, possibly because no one else wants the job.

I met Carole when we were at Shuttleworth and last year we celebrated our Golden Wedding with our two daughters and five grandchildren.

Still keep in touch with Deryck Easton (NDA 65-67) who is also retired and is still living in Meysey Hampton near Cirencester, having spent a lot of his career with cows and cattle. He and Jane celebrated their Golden Wedding this year. They also met when Deryck was at Shuttleworth. Jane was living next door to Carole and came to College dances with us and the rest is history!!

Have been in occasional e mail contact with Mark Morris trying to arrange a meet up at Twickenham before Covid 19 took over our lives. On which subject, if we ever get back to normal and anyone from our era is going to Twickenham I have debentures there so am there for most games, so please get in touch. Mark was contemplating a move to France at one stage but not sure where he is on that one with recent developments.

Sadly heard that Dave Ross (NDA 65-67) passed away and have done a separate piece on him for you which I attach.

A great shame that the reunion had to be cancelled due to the pandemic. We are certainly living in strange and difficult times but hopefully next year ---- . In the meantime I would be delighted to hear from any old friends and if anyone wants them please feel free to pass on my contact details.

Thank you for all your stirling work as Editor - it is much appreciated. Regards Peter

PS Do you or anyone else have any news or contact details for Brian Bell (NDA 65 /67)

If anyone wants to contact old friends contact Paddy Godwin on patrick.godwin@btinternet.com and he will check the SCA database. Ed

Ian Roy McCall NDA 67/69

As an old NDA student of the late 60s I thought a short update from our small farm in the Midlands might be of interest:-

On leaving Shuttleworth and following in the footsteps of Ken Russell, who sadly died at work during my first term at Shutts, I went wholeheartedly into dairy farming building up a pedigree herd of 125 Holstein Friesians. This was a time of huge increases in milk production per cow, driven by stable prices thanks to the Milk Marketing Board, and made possible by improved genetics, feeding and management systems.

Little did we know how things were about to change. Milk lakes and butter mountains resulted in quotas which became a valuable asset. The milk price was still good but, as my sons did not want to milk cows, I decided to cash-in on the quota and give up dairy farming. Probably a good move because, with the MMB abolished and the supermarkets suppressing the milk price, the quotas became worthless.

However, we converted the old dairy buildings into ten offices and the grain store and tractor shed into a wedding venue to be run by my eldest son Mark. If it were not for Covid we would be doing seventy weddings this year!

Nine glamping pods have also been installed and these are in big demand for staycations.

Meanwhile youngest son Peter has dug out three lakes and now we are the only Wakeboard and Waterpark Park with purpose-built multi-level Gap Line wakeboard system.

Diversification has enabled the farm to continue, prosper and provide livelihood for the family.

Kind regards, Ian Roy

Ian Roy McCall Wootton Park Farm

Wootton Wawen

Henley-in-Arden, B95 6HJ www.woottonpark.co.uk

www.spotonwake.co.uk www.woottonparkpods.co.uk

ianroy@woottonpark.co.uk

Nigel Holley OND 1977-80

For three years post college I worked at Halsey & Partners Estate, Hemel Hempstead in a trainee management role; this basically meant turning my hand to anything and everything! We had five farms on the estate including: a dairy unit with 450 Pedigree Friesians, a Barley Beef unit, an Equine Stud Farm and 1800 acres of arable, plus shooting, hunting, fishing and even two pubs on the estate. So never a dull moment, particularly as we often had a number of foreign farming students and trainee vets working with us and living with me in the student cottage; it was one continual messy night out! Following this, I briefly became a freelance photographer and then entered into the world of financial services, advising wealthy individuals and companies on all aspects of their financial planning. I have worked for a number of global businesses over the last 37 years dealing with some interesting clients in the UK and in some exotic locations, but my formative years in agriculture have often been valuable in my dealings with clients and their assets, despite work being based in London! Louise and I married in 1985 and we have three boys, now aged 30, 28 and 24, all tentively flown the nest now. We live in St Albans and always open to be contacted and a beer whenever the pubs reopen!

Andy Carver (Goober) (he likes pea-nuts)

Still living in Loddon where his DIY and gardening shop has ironically benefitted from Covid restrictions; the introduction of a one-way route through the shop has increased sales (better product exposure). He also does contract grass cutting and gardening machinery repair and maintenance.

Graeme Brown (Spiny Norman)

I still find it strange to think that 40 years after leaving Shuttleworth I should be a qualified and registered agronomist supplying viticultural consultancy services to vineyards (Tyringham Hall Newport Pagnell, Rectory Farm Emberton (owner John Croxford HND 7881), Chet Valley Vineyards Norwich, Thursford Old Hall Fakenham and Holkham Hall Wells-Next-the-Sea- who’d have thought it!

Paddy Barker NDA 1985-88 ( I think!! - same as Richard Blackhurst/John Allen etc)

I had good skiing until 10th March this year, when all the fun was rapidly halted by Covid19. Since then, I have been at home steadily doing a full on maintenance schedule which is almost finished…. not sure what’s going to happen over the winter with the current status…. Farming- Oh yes… none of that! My farm is now a gravel quarry. I have 58 acres left that a local contractor looks after. I do miss “playing” with all the machinery etc, but don’t miss the paperwork!

So not much to report!!

Paddy