IN MEMORY OF ERIC FREEMAN AND OTHER FARM PIONEERS
A view from the farm
A pretty medieval market town in Gloucestershire was brought to a standstill, car parks were overflowing and the narrow pavements so packed there was no room to pass.
Newent was saying its final farewell to Eric Freeman; a remarkable farmer, conservationist and one of the pioneers of the British rare breeds movement. More than 700 people from all over the UK came to Eric’s funeral and the whole town fell silent as he made his final journey, conveyed on his own vintage hay waggon pulled by Mollie, a Shire horse.
It was fitting recognition of Eric’s standing in the world of livestock conservation. Not only was he a renowned breeder of Cotswold sheep and Old Spot pigs, he also played a vital part in saving the Gloucester cattle breed from extinction more than half a century ago. He bought his first pair of ‘Old Gloucesters’ when the beautiful mahogany-coloured cattle with their trademark upswept horns caught his eye at Tetbury market in 1971. The following year, he stood beside my father, Joe Henson, at a makeshift auction ring on a little isolated farm near the River Severn when the last surviving herd was sold off.
Dad and Eric became great friends with a shared passion for threatened farm breeds and he was like a favourite uncle to me and my sisters as we grew up. I looked on proudly as he made his mark reviving old rural traditions, such as wassailing.
His rich voice, with its warm Gloucestershire burr, graced Radio 4 numerous times, to say nothing of his 30-year career as the go-to countryman on BBC local radio.
A LASTING LEGACY
Eric’s life and achievements have made me pause and consider the legacy of other pioneers of the rare breeds movement. When we talk about conservation heroes, we think of figures such as Sir David Attenborough, ornithologist Sir Peter Scott and chimpanzee expert Dame Jane Goodall. But without a band of determined visionaries in the 1960s and 1970s, many of our much-loved county breeds would have gone the way of the dodo.
For instance, Charles Martell is famous for being the ‘royal’ cheesemaker behind Stinking
