Exhibition led to a follow-up

THERE were three speakers at the opening of the exhibition - normally there are only two. Robert Stones, Chairman of the Museum's Board of Management, introduced Brian Moore, one of the two organisers of the exhibition, who in turn introduced the opener, Keith Chesters.

Robert Stones said: “It is a great pleasure to be involved with the opening of a new exhibition. Many years ago I did an exhibition about chairs and I remember it was about the eleventh hour when I suddenly realised how much hard work there is involved with laying on these exhibitions. As I look round the walls here I can see all the blood, sweat and tears that have gone into it all. Please do enjoy the exhibition.

   “It is very important that we should have the Museum here for these sort of occasions to look back at what has gone on in the town. Making up proud to understand what the town is all about.

   “Brian Moore, who has put so much work into the exhibition, we look upon as being our voluntary expert on agriculture. He ran an exhibition a year ago which was so successful that we extended the length of the run because everybody enjoyed the exhibition so much. Brian felt the need, as he was doing that exhibition, to take it on a stage further because he kept on discovering more lost farms.

   “Brian is very much a Cheshire man. He started off going to King’s School, Chester, he trained at Reaseheath, and then for several years he worked in farm management and he finished working for four years or so at Berkeley Towers with land drainage and as a field officer with them. His was very much a career that was involved with agriculture.

   “He is a man connected to Cheshire and has great authority on the subject. And he is a great collector of antique agriculture items. He is a real enthusiast. It is a great having him give his knowledge to the Museum.”

   Robert then asked those present to congratulate Brian and his wife, Maureen, who were about to celebrate their sixtieth wedding anniversary.

Brian Moore pointed out the old Cheshire County Council smallholdings feature in one part of the exhibition. The other farms were in alphabetical order round the gallery, he said.

    “It really is amazing what turns up in research - such as the farm that stood on the site of the Roman Catholic Church School in Wellington Road.

    “Many local people, some of them at the reception, have provided me with lots of knowledge, documents and photographs, which have helped to form the overall picture.”

    He thanked all those who had contributed to the exhibition – Andrew Lamberton for all his technical help and expertise, Kate Dobson (Community Learning Officer) and Fiona Swain (Administration Assistant) of the Museum for help in the administration field, Barrie Astbury and his assistants John Carter and Brian Cole, in the installation of the exhibition, Richard Farrall for expert research on several of the farms, Bernadette King and Ian Wright for background assistance, Sarah Hope, Molly Stone, Fiona Swain and Diane Slough for presenting the buffet, and Robert Stones (the Chairman of the Museum Board of Management) for sustained and loyal support.

   He thanked Joseph Heler Cheese for sponsoring the exhibition.

Keith Chesters, who was standing in for Michael Heler, Managing Director of Joseph Heler Cheese, who was unable to attend the exhibition, said Mr Heler loved being involved in the Museum. He apologised for not being able to attend.

    Opening the exhibition, Mr Chesters said: “My involvement with Helers goes back to 1962 after leaving Cirencester when I joined them as Farm Manager – a bit of a glorified title in those days. We only had 80 cows and 100 acres. Of course, over the years I saw it grow to about 1,000 acres and we had 1,300 cattle at one stage.”

    He said today there were 140 farms supplying Helers on a daily basis, and the firm made about 50 tonnes of cheese a day.

    “The sponsorship of the Joseph Heler room at the Museum was the result of very good marketing. Keith Ward (a former Chairman of the Museum’s Board of Management) knew Joseph Heler and Tony Vernon were of a nature that if you told one that the other had offered to put in more money, the other would go higher. In the end Joseph Heler won and sponsored the room.”

   He invited those present to look at Brian Moore’s cheese room in the Museum which takes people back. "I can remember the early days when we were starting cheese making and it’s well worth taking a look at," he said.

   “At the present time I inspect farms, probably one or two a day, for the Red Tractor Food Assurance scheme. I get quite a good view over the industry as a whole and what I am seeing at the moment is really two different pictures out there. Anyone going to a supermarket pays something like 80p a litre for milk. The farmer, at the moment, is getting something in the region of about 28p for that milk.

   “He is literally losing money every day and what we are seeing on the economies of scale is that those farms are disappearing. The bigger ones are getting bigger and we don’t see animals in those management systems out to grass. They are fed mainly indoors. They will go out to grass, they have the choice but, depending on the system, you probably don’t see as many cows as you go out.

   “The other system which is coming in is the New Zealand system whereby they spend a lot of money on infrastructure, a lot of roads throughout the farm, and they can graze the pastures for 10 months of the year. They are superb grassland managers. They will go out with a plain meter and measure by the growth of the grass how many cows that will stand grazing in a 12-hour period. Their margins for home-grown forage is terrific.

   “The farming industry is struggling. Politically they don’t count for a very big percentage of the vote. It is becoming very tough out there to make a living.

    “Brian, the interest that you are showing in keeping agriculture going is amazing. I am looking forward to going round the exhibition.”