Bowes Green Farm unit. The electricity goes into the National Grid and their overall electricity bill that was once over £ 1,000 per month is now down to virtually nothing.
“ We are also in the Entry Level stewardship scheme which sees us with field margins, lots of trees and a pond,” says Shaun.
Shaun and his fiancée, Liz have been together for 21 years and have been engaged for 20 of them! They have two sons James and Ryan. Paul is married to Angela and they have a daughter, Beth. Peter and his wife Julie have three children – Stephen, Kathryn and George. Shaun, Paul and Peter have two sisters – Carol, who is married to Keith; and Fliss who is married to Peter( McAlmont). One of their sons, Alfie plays for Leeds United and is now in the first team squad. He played for Northern Ireland U17s recently against Spain and San Marino. His agent and manager is no less than footballer Michael Owen. Alfie’ s brother Harry plays for Leeds United U13 academy team.
Sport and having fun have been a big part in Shaun’ s and his brothers’ lives. Not only did Shaun once win the‘ malt whisky moment’ for the most ludicrous happening on a golf course at one of my golf days many years ago; he is also a darts aficionado, has been known to dress up in a tutu and go ballet dancing( for a bet!); and recently played tambourine all night at one of my concerts – and bought a harmonica during an auction for Yorkshire Air Ambulance at the same concert, that he took on holiday to bother Liz!
Their main love sportswise has been cricket and in particular playing for Bishop Thornton. In fact, they saved the club from folding in 1978.
Shaun captained the team from 1980 and they took their little village side to glory having started off in Division 5 of the Nidderdale League.
“ The club is going through harder times now but we’ re still in Division 1. Peter’ s son, Stephen is now captain and my son James plays. Paul was Yorkshire county cricket standard and Peter was our opening bowler. We had some great times!”
Sadly, the Sowrays’ mum Bridget passed away recently. She was 90 years of age.
Bridget Rafferty left the village of Clogher in County Tyrone 76 years ago when she was just 14. Her story is as remarkable as any of Barbara Taylor Bradford’ s novels. She hid in a chicken hut before leaving her family, caught the ferry to Stranraer and made her way to Harrogate where her sister lived. Bridget had been given the name of a market stall trader whom she visited and was told of work available at a hotel in the town. She worked her way up to becoming manageress of what was then the Studley Hotel, met husband-to-be Alfred Sowray on a blind date and became a farmer’ s wife. They had six children but Alfred tragically passed away while their eldest children were in their early 20s.
“ Our mother was an incredible woman. She was once told she should write a book about her extraordinary life,” says Shaun, who is the eldest of four sons.“ We were tenant farmers running a dairy herd of 40 cows, a flock of 600 sheep and 25 suckler cows across 202 acres in 1981 when dad died and we were all still young. Mum held everything together and kept us all right.”
A remarkable lady with a remarkable family, indeed. www. farmers-mart. co. uk Oct / Nov 2016 63