The Farmers Mart Oct-Nov 2017 - Issue 53 | Page 28

Marrick Abbey Farm
Fleeces, beef and
prize winning
sheep at Marrick
Chris Berry talks with Syd Bainbridge at Marrick Abbey Farm.
» » BACK IN THE 1990S I TOOK
a photograph of a man loading
up a trailer in Swaledale. It
was just one of those split
second moments that you
can’t recreate. I simply had
my camera in my hand after
having just completed an
interview and the scene was
typically Yorkshire, with rolling
hills in the background and a
farmer at work on a country
lane. I used the photograph as
a cover shot on the Farming in
Yorkshire magazine that I ran
for many years.
One of the favourite
competitions among farming
families when receiving
the magazine through the
post was to tell me where in
Yorkshire the picture had been
taken and on this occasion I’d
apparently captured one of
Swaledale’s favourite sons –
Stan Bainbridge. I was soon to
realise just how popular Stan
was and how the Bainbridge
family name is synonymous
with quality sheep breeding.
Sadly Stan passed away in
1999, but the Bainbridge name
lives on at Marrick Abbey Farm
where the family business of
Bainbridge Bros sees three
brothers, Stan’s sons Ernest,
Syd and Andrew, carrying on
the family tradition of sheep
farming. The dairy operation
that grew under Stan’s tenure
was a casualty eight years
ago and today a suckler herd
has replaced it. The haulage
and storage of fleeces forms
another arm of today’s farm
business at Marrick.
‘We’re predominantly a
sheep farm,’ says Syd. ‘We
have just over 1000 breeding
ewes of which 900 are
Swaledales. Of those 200-300
will be put to the Swaledale
tup with the rest going to
the Blue Faced Leicester to
produce Mules for getting
away in September and
October. We also have around
100 Dalesbred ewes that are
largely put straight back to the
Dalesbred tup with any that
28 Oct/Nov 2017 www.farmers-mart.co.uk
are not good enough put to
the Blue Faced Leicester to
produce the Dales Mule. We
have 12 Blue Faced Leicester
ewes to produce tups and 15
Teeswater ewes to keep the
breed going. We used to breed
Mashams.
‘Lambing starts from the
last week in March and runs
through for around six weeks.
We hold back the Swaledales
to give the Mule lambs a bit
of a start. Mules are all sold
at Hawes and we sell tups at
Hawes and Kirkby Stephen.’
The breeding of the
Teeswater is very much a
matter of tradition and prowess
in showing for the Bainbridges
who have had breed champion
at the Great Yorkshire Show on
more than 20 occasions. They
have also had male and female
champions there with their
Swaledales.
‘Ernest and his daughter,
Lynsey show the Teeswaters
while Andrew, my daughter,
Katy and Ernest’s son, Martin