Devon Tour

Over 200 Club members, local MPs, politicians, dignitaries, Devon figures, and some from over the Cornish border, enjoyed a splendid garden party at Chairman John Lee’s Coombe Barton home.

As we enjoyed John’s sumptuous hospitality, in beautifully laid out gardens overlooking the rolling Devon countryside, the sun shone and the harpist played – and all suddenly seemed very well in the world! IT was with great pleasure that Chairman John Lee hosted 37 Farmers Club members to Devon to taste the area’s diverse historic, agricultural and cultural heritage.

Our first visit was to the Meteorological Office, founded by Vice-Admiral Robert Fitzroy in 1854, following his captaincy of HMS Beagle on her famous journey around the globe. The advance of Numerical Weather Prediction techniques in 1922 harnessed maths and physics to make better forecasts, which computers put into practice decades later, with supercomputers now delivering seamless weather and climate modelling.

We were superbly hosted by Sean Gumberton, Head of Environment and Energy, Sarah Johnson, Head of External Relations and Dr Pete Falloon, Head of Science and Climate Change who explained in some detail the effects of the warming planet and climate change with particular reference to agriculture and farming with the effects of flood, drought and longer term modelling giving a fascinating glimpse of the very real challenges that could face the industry over the coming decades.

The visit included a tour of the Operations Centre to see forecasts being generated and the library where we were shown the original forecast used for the D Day landings. A truly superb visit, although rather sobering in its content.

At Dart’s Farm, we saw a truly diverse enterprise built on the benefits of eating locally produced seasonal food. Started by Ronald Dart in 1971 with a p-y-o business, sons Michael, James and Paul developed the ethic of providing locally grown, sourced and fresh produce, which now includes their own Pebblebed vineyard, a herd of Ruby Red Devon cattle, and an award-winning farm shop supporting 214 food and drinks companies across the southwest.

The pace of the tour was maintained as the coach moved to Clinton Devon Estates, Devon’s largest private landowner, originating with the Clinton Barony over seven centuries ago. Today, less than a third of the Rolle estate, as it was in the midnineteenth century, remains in the Clinton family’s ownership. However, the 22nd, 23rd and 24th generations of the family remain actively involved in its stewardship.

John Varley OBE Estates Director and Leigh Rix Head of Property and Land (both Club members) led our tour, including an extremely innovative climate mitigation project at Budleigh Salterton, as seen on BBC Countryfile.

To address the threat of a catastrophic, unplanned breach of the embankments, Clinton Devon, with the Environment Agency and East Devon Pebblebed Heaths Conservation Trust, created a £15 million scheme to help 150ha of Otter Valley adapt to climate change and, at the same time, create an internationally important wildlife reserve.

A managed “realignment” will see the 1812 embankments breached to allow land to flood at high tide, creating 55

hectares of new saltmarsh and mudflats as habitat for wading birds and other rare species, plus significant areas of reedbed and grazing marsh for nature. 10% of the species involved are nationally or internationally rare.

Dinner was prepared for us by catering students at Exeter College using ingredients sourced from the locality including wine from Darts Farm. The college, established in 1970 as the first tertiary college in the UK, teaches everyone from chefs to waiters and bar staff to managers, with the Catering and Hospitality school running an incredibly good restaurant, to which we were warmly welcomed by Principal John Laramy CBE and specialist lecturers.

Day two started north of Exeter at the multi-award winning Quicke’s Farm, a family owned business renowned for its world class cheese produced at Newton St Cyres on land nurtured for over 500 years. Mary Quicke MBE DL explained how the many types of cheese are hand-made in the traditional way. The palpable enthusiasm Mary showed for what she produces, her stewardship of the land and supporting local people and businesses was evident for all to see.

At Mole Avon Country Stores, Crediton, CEO Mike Haines explained how the business has operated since October 1966, initially on the outskirts of Crediton, with further branches opening in other market towns, and Mole Avon Trading Ltd commencing in August 1973. The new site was occupied in September 2018, with a store, food and beverage outlets, farm shop and local arts and crafts show-cased. The party enjoyed a very welcome buffet lunch here.

After lunch we headed to Sandford Orchards. Founded in 2002, it is independent, family owned, and extremely proud to be based in the oldest working cider mill in the UK. The locality provides the perfect micro-climate for growing cider apples, blessed with some of the finest bittersweet apple orchards in the world. Owner and proprietor Barny Butterfield explained his small team’s approach, before members undertook some crucial market research into the various types of cider.

In the evening we visited Exeter Cathedral, just five minutes from our hotel. Founded in 1050, the current more Gothic building was complete in about 1400, a mere 700 years ago! The party was hosted to a superb tour and drinks by the Dean, The Very Reverend Jonathan Greener.

The final morning took us to Powderham Castle, a fortified manor house mentioned in the Domesday Book, which came into the Courtenay family in 1325. The family are still resident and through the 19th Earl, the estates are still managed on their behalf on the banks of the River Exe, where we had lunch.

This very wide-ranging Chairman’s Tour was a superb taster of all that Devon has to offer. Our grateful thanks go to all for their time and resource to enable such a memorable trip, and to John for his attentive and generous hospitality throughout.

A superb dinner was enjoyed in one of the oldest and most significant buildings in Exeter, the Guildhall, dating from around 1466, where we enjoyed a short, guided tour of the city’s silver presented by Henry VII after the attempted usurping of the throne in 1497. The Very Reverend Greener offered grace and the Rt Reverend Nick McKinnell, Bishop of Plymouth and Club member gave a superb speech.