The Farmers Mart Apr-May 2020 - Issue 68 | Page 34

34 HEADINGLEY FARMERS’ MARKET
APR/MAY 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
‘Lincolnshire
Poacher Cheese’
Diversification
Excellence
Tim Jones is one of the directors of F.W. Read
& Sons Ltd, Alford, Lincolnshire, the home of
the renowned and award-winning Lincolnshire
Poacher Cheese. I met up with Tim, who
runs the day to day business side, with his
brother Simon primarily running the farm
and cheese production unit. The farm has
been in the family for four generations.
IN 1917 the farm was then part of
the large Well Vale Estate. Tim’s
Great grandfather Fred Read
(on his mother Jenny’s side)
took on the tenancy. It was
a very typical mixed farm of
the time. Ironically given our
current situation, Fred and wife
Minnie tragically lost two of
their younger children Frank
and Mable to the Spanish flu
epidemic of 1918. So, it was one
of Fred’s other sons Charles
(Jenny’s father) who took up the
reins in 1948 when Fred retired,
Charles continued to run the
farm throughout the late 40’s,
50’s and 60’s.
As time progressed, it was
apparent that the farm could
well disappear from the family’s
hands as Jenny didn’t want to
run the farm and her brother,
being a successful Oxbridge
lawyer, also didn’t want to
change career and go into
farming.
Then fate took a hand, as it
often does, in the shape of Tim
and Simon’s father, Richard. He
had always wanted to have a
farm and met Jenny whilst he
was still at agricultural college.
When it was clear that the Read
line was not going to carry on, he
approached the Well Vale estate
and purchased the farm in the
late 60’s. Richard was not only
keen on farming having learnt
much at college and from his
experience working on farms,
but he was also very entrepre-
neurial, borrowed more money
and purchased another 1200
acres; the reason being that he
wanted an all-round operation
and felt that the way forward
was to put a dairy unit on the
farm. This he ran very success-
fully, having a 230 head herd of
Friesians at Ulceby and 500 in
total across all three farms.
As we all know too well, the
1980’s and 90’s were particularly
tough times for dairy farmers
with milk quotas etc. So, when
Tim’s brother Simon came back
from agricultural college in
the late 80’s, his father had the
foresight to see there was the
need for another string to the
farm’s bow to protect profits.
He suggested to Simon that
he investigate the possibility
of making cheese. Keen to
get stuck into something new,
but wanting to have the best
chance of success, he spent
two years preparing, starting
with a cheese-making course
at Reaseheath College and then
visiting various cheese dairies in
the south west.