Farming Talk: Taking Stock of the Future & Exmoor’s Traditional Breeds

by Victoria Eveleigh In the spring issue Michelle Werrett wrote about Exmoor’s livestock heritage. Following on from this, I was keen to talk to some of the farmers who still keep Exmoor Horn and Devon Closewool sheep, and also Red Ruby Devon cattle. I wanted to find out why they have remained faithful to the traditional [...]

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Oliver Edwards of Westermill

It was sunny and still in Dunster, but 30 minutes into the hills a south-westerly gale screamed down the Exe valley north-west of Exford and threatened to blow your socks off.“I knew all this was coming,” Oliver Edwards said.  “I heard it for Lundy on the shipping forecast. I listen to it every morning. It’s [...]

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Final Paws: Brian Imeson from Challacombe with his Guide Dogs Enton and Yorkie

by Tortie Eveleigh, photo by Andy Hobbs Many people say that dogs enrich their lives, but Brian Imeson’s two Labradors have transformed his life and given him an independence and self-confidence which, when he knew he was going blind, he thought he’d lost forever. Golden boy Enton (now 15 and retired) and boisterous young Yorkie are Brian’s [...]

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We revisit Norma Huxtable’s reflections on marriage

With the coming of spring a young countryman’s life can call for that toughest of all decisions: to wed or not to wed. Time could be running out with the pullet next door as the ‘winter ‘em, summer ‘em, and winter ‘em’ again swings into its third cycle. Furthermore Father, at present holding the farming reins, [...]

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A New Era for Cutcombe Market

by Frances Nicholson A century ago Cutcombe Market was not weekly but a spring and autumn affair. The cattle were Devons – Red Rubies with their sweeping horns – or Longhorns, and the sheep mostly Exmoors and Devon Closewool. The hill land, then largely unimproved, was not for finishing cattle or sheep for slaughter, but for [...]

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