Jim Davies reflects on a lifetime in farming, from rebuilding Blackhurst Farm from dereliction to adapting through decades of change. With humour and honesty, he shares stories of family, hardship, and resilience, alongside memories of horses and travel, offering a grounded perspective on rural life and what matters most after nearly ninety years.

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Mark shares a life shaped by farming roots, family, and hard work, from milking cows by hand as a child to running a rural taxi business. He reflects on loss, including a fire that destroyed treasured vintage tractors, and the realities of modern rural life. With humour and honesty, he talks about family, local life, and looking ahead to a slower pace.

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we’ve been back up the hill to Picklescott where we’ve caught up with Nigel Morris, a third generation farmer at Wilrack Farm. Nigel tells us what it was like to grow up in a small village on top of a hill and what passed for entertainment for him and his friends. We talk about the challenge of early starts and the importance of resilience in order to overcome the challenges of low milk prices and what the future of dairy farming might look like.

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have a bit of a laugh with the kids who will eventually become the custodians of this land we love. We’re back at the food bank in the Parish Centre to learn how the situation has changed over the last year. Then it’s the Gardening Club Show in the Silvester Horne Institute where we speak to exhibitors and visitors and we finish off this week, where we will all end up - in a cemetery but it’s a popular green burial remembrance park near Rushbury.

Timings 

Next gen farmers  02:03

Food bank 09:37

Gardening Club show 15:14

Green burials 22:14

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stuart Wright is known to everyone in town as the owner of Wrights Estate Agency. He talks to Sian about how the family ended up in Church Stretton, the shops and people who were around then and about the time he went on a school trip to the Welsh coast which ended in disaster.

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We have been back to see Matt Johnson at Hazler Farm to hear how lambing has gone this year and what’s next in the farming calendar. And there’s some Victorian farming going on at Acton Scott Heritage Farm where visitors dance around a May pole like something you’d see in a jigsaw of times gone by! Church Stretton accordion band provide the music and the shire horses provide the raw material, and and then carry it, for the other big event on the Victorian Farm - muck spreading.

Timings 

Acton Scott Heritage Farm  00:48

The cake walk at Eaton church 07:10

Th end of lambing 14:48

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Keith Morris is well-known in the area as the undertaker. He tells us about growing up in Church Stretton, memorable moments with a burning hearse and the brotherhood of undertakers.

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This week we go up onto the Long Mynd to speak to Sioned Morris who's practicing for the stock judging competition at the local Young Farmers Club and then we join the Much Wenlock Fire Service as they carry out a practice drill in the centre of Church Stretton. Finally we are at Bowman Hill Farm in Plaish where the Butty Van is offering not just sausage and bacon baps and cups of tea but important social interaction with other farmers, health checks and chats.

Timings 

YFC Stock Judging  01:00

Fire Service drill 07:32

The Butty Van 14:48

Total Dur 26:20

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Ron Cox looks back on his life in Bucknell and then Ticklerton and Soudley where he still lives today. He tells us about his sporting life, his dancing days, his courting days and what he got up to with his brothers. 

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Anna Turner, the Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire talks about how she tries to get members of the royal family to come to the county. There’s also an offer of help to give your award nominations the best chance of success. There’s also a round up of what’s in the area in the next few weeks to get you out of the house.

Timings 

Anna Turner 00:53

Arts Trail 21:46

What’s On 24:54

If you know someone we should speak to for the podcast, please get in touch with us.

Find us online

https://thestrettonspod.com/

email us: [email protected] 

Support the podcast https://buymeacoffee.com/thestrettonspod

Producers

Sian Lovegrove, Pete Johnson

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.