Fanfield Farm – The Story

When I was a young boy, my parents used to take me, from our home town Southampton, up to Worksop near Sheffield to spend time on my Great Aunts Farm. Auntie Prue was a formidable and incredibly strong woman who in the local community needed no introduction.

Every summer she would have us visit, but by no means did that mean we sat around having tea. Auntie Prue had jobs for us all, after all she almost single handedly ran a large dairy farm.

Prue married young, but not long after her husband (whom I never met) was tragically killed in a chalk quarry accident. This left my great Auntie Prue to run the dairy farm on her own, which she did from around the age of 18 until she sadly passed in her 90’s.

I have incredibly fond memories of the farm in Worksop. It was where I first drove a car, sitting on my dads lap as a youngster… Too small to reach the pedals but able to turn the wheel and feeling incredibly grown up.

I was taught by my cousin Michael how to reverse a tractor and trailer… How to milk cows and avoid being kicked by them.. How to grow and pick raspberries from the garden. And at the young age of 2 years old I put my hand print in the setting concrete of a freshly put-up gate post, which I believe is still there today.

I have incredibly fond memories of Fanfield Farm in Worksop and it is that memory that I want to live on. It is why I have always had the dream of wanting to run my own farm, be a part of the local community and grow food “properly”.

The memories of the farm were recently re-ignited in me as Auntie Prue in 1982 bought a brand new Land Rover Series 3 which when she passed away she passed down to my Uncle, who last year passed it down to me. It had not run for 7 years and with the help of a trusty Haynes manual and Youtube is now back on the road. The smell still takes me back to the farm every time I get in the Landy and I couldn’t not follow my roots in to farming any longer.

The site that the farm in Worksop once stood on is no longer a working farm, as with many farms it has been converted into cottages and country houses for many to live on. However I hope that by bringing the Fanfield Farm name back I can continue the memory of my Auntie Prue and the once brilliantly run farm.

The logo is a throwback to the building that I remember, whilst the farm had many barns and buildings the logo is the outline of the old farm house as I remember it.

I hope I can keep the memory of Fanfield Farm alive for many years to come.