Midhurst Magazine. Issue 31, Spring, April 2020. The 60th year edition.
Looking Back: Neil Dallyn’s views in 1995 - and now First, from a 1995 Midhurst Society publication that disturbs him. He minds when unsympathetic materials are used with ancient stone-work, too bright bricks or pretentious thatch, which result in a building that is uncomfortable with its surroundings. (From the
‘He is sixteen and content with the life in farming he has chosen for himself when his education has been completed at the Midhurst Grammar School. A member of a family of farmers he is undisturbed by the change being imposed on the farming community. Though his principal interest is in arable crops, he accepts that diversification is necessary and already work, such as tree surgery and garden landscaping, have become part of farm life. Where once the main crops would have been wheat, oats and barley, today they plant flax and linseed. Keyzaston Farm, at the foot of the Downs at Sutton, is a mixed farm of 150acres, rented from Lord Mersey, of which approximately 100 acres is arable, and 50 acres is grazing for cattle and a few sheep. Although Neil Dallyn is not unsympathetic to the idea of small farms following in the traditional pattern, he knows they are no longer viable and it is the family’s intention to add to their acreage as and when other farms become available.
(from the Spectator at the time)
At Keyzaston Farm they cut the hedges late to allow the birds time to build their nests and rear their young. He sometimes feels the footpaths that were established for the practical purpose of communication between farms and villages for those that could only go on foot are nowadays misused for journeys to nowhere, sometimes with undisciplined dogs who can sniff out creatures that live in the hedgerows. It is, or course, in the nature of dogs to sniff things out, many a farm dog has been sent after rabbits, but working dogs can usually be brought to heel when their job is done. Dogs just out to play have a different attitude. He does not care for the mess left behind people who arrive uninvited on farm land, but recognises that travellers are probably an established hazard for farmers. One gets the impression when talking to Neil Dallyn that he hopes to find a path through the apparent disorder of his time which will reconcile the urbanising of the countryside
It is tempting to think that this remarkably unruffled person has no strong objections to anything, but talk for a while about the countryside and it becomes clear that he is concerned about the way the character of the villages is changing; cottages that once housed integrated communities with a common knowledge of the workings of their locality have become occupied by people who come from far away and are rarely able to contribute to rural life as it has been understood. He is concerned about the conversion of traditional farm buildings. He has no objection to their becoming desirable residences, better that they are used than allowed to decay, it is the manner in which the transition is sometimes 22
