The Farmers Mart Feb/Mar 2016 - Issue 44 | Page 52

Cliffe Farm

New farm
shop to open
in Cottingley
Chris Berry meets John
Ludbrook at Cliffe Farm
»»FARMING HAS BEEN JOHN
Ludbrook’s passion throughout
his life. It began when he
started helping his father,
Frank on his dairy farm in
Denholme Gate where he
was born; but the trade he
left the farm to learn has also
remained a strong influence
and is back to the fore again.
It will very soon see a brand
new business emerge at Cliffe
Farm, Cottingley near Bradford
when he and wife, Dawn open
Ludbrook’s Farm Shop.
“Dad was a dairy farmer
milking about 60 black and
white cows, but when I left
school in 1976, farming was
really depressed. We’d been to
Skipton livestock market and
the fat cattle price had been so
low that he’d said to me: ‘the
best thing you can do if you
can’t beat these butchers is to
join them’. In the end he came
out of dairy, leased out his milk
quota, bulled all his cows with a
Limousin and ran a suckler herd
instead. I would have loved to

continue milking cows at the
time but it wasn’t to be and it is
very tying.”
John took his dad’s comment
on board and that same year
he went to work for Lewis
Greenwood butchers in
Halifax. Having trained there,
the business-savvy young
John opened up his own
butcher’s shop in Saffron Drive
in Allerton, Bradford in 1979,
which he had until 1986.
“I’d developed what had
been a bankrupt shop into a
profitable business. We had
a Co-op alongside us as well
as a bread shop and things
were going great but the other
two shops closed down and
that affected our trade as
the shopping centre was no
longer seen as such. Without
my butchery side we wouldn’t
be where we are today. It
has always stood me in good
stead,” he admitted.
John had never given up
working for his father while he
had been running the butcher’s

52 Feb/Mar 2016 www.farmers-mart.co.uk

shop and had made the move
to Cliffe Farm in 1982 when it
had come up for rent.
“Dad rented the 36 acres
here as an additional farm
and I began developing it. He
brought dairy heifers and I used
to keep a few pigs. Dawn and I
have gradually built up the farm.
We got together in 1995 and
have grown a family of four sons
and a daughter – Jonathan (25)
who lives with his grandmother;
Liam (23), Samuel (19), Emily
(17) and Oliver (16). We bought
this place outright in 1997.
We have put up a new cattle
shed since then; we’ve altered
the pig buildings to general
purpose sheds; put up a little
shed recently for more pigs;
and we have plans for another
new cattle shed and another
general purpose building. Since
my father passed away four
years ago, we have also taken
on farming the 64 acres that
my mum owns and with other
rented land we’re now farming
across 140 acres.”

The latest development is,
however, the soon-to-be fully
opened farm shop. It’s already
open but the improvements
the Ludbrooks are currently
making to their farm lane are
what will herald the official
opening. They want to get it
just right.
“We opened a little farm shop
years ago when I first came
here but access was a bit of a
problem so we’re making the
entrance wider and smartening
up the lane,” he explained.
The shop building that the
Ludbrooks will be utilising was
once a school classroom. John
hadn’t originally set out with
that purpose in mind when he’d
bought it.
“An old school was being
pulled down but this was a
new white building that had
been added. My intention
was to turn it into a farrowing
house but Dawn said it was
way too good for that - and
that’s when we hit back on
the idea of a farm shop selling