The Farmers Mart Apr/May 2016 - Issue 45 | Page 54

Brown Hill House
in a choir and it was quite a
celebration. Afterwards, there’s
just a foot square stone tile
with a name on. It’s the same
for everybody. I tend to get
three categories of people
who wish to be buried here.
They are either ‘green’, nonreligious or feel they have a
strong association with the
Moors, but I haven’t buried a
fellow farmer as yet.”
Jonathan was born in
Corbridge in Northumberland.
His grandmother farmed. He
worked on farms from being
10 years old and studied for an
HND in general agriculture at
Myerscough College following
which he spent a year working
on small dairy farms. He began
teaching agriculture to day
release students at Askham
Bryan College’s Guisborough
centre in 1983.
“The funny thing was that
when I landed on one farm with
10 students - because I wasn’t

much older than any of them the farmer was looking around
quizzically and asked ‘where’s
the boss?”
Jonathan taught at all the
Askham Bryan College centres
in a 30 year career that finished
two years ago. While living in
Guisborough he had initially
rented 10 acres and had started
farming in his