1939/45 - Land requisitioned by War Office for secret developments
The 1939/45 war produced great changes with the interests of the military and of food production paramount.
By then the Shorthorns were being bred up (based at Lowther Newtown) to become pure Dairy Shorthorns with, for them, very high milk yields; most of the farm (and Lowther Castle and several thousand acres of commons and tenanted land) was requisitioned by the War Office and became an area for the development of, and training of troops in the use of, a new weapon for tank warfare, in strict secrecy and high security. The farm land was fenced off and surrounded by a tall canvas barrier as a security screen, and one man only of the farm staff, Norman Hudson by name, security screened and on presentation of a pass, was allowed inside to shepherd the black-faced ewes. From time to time as many as 250 armoured fighting vehicles (mainly tanks) would be clattering about the place, destroying stone walls, ruining field drainage systems and rendering the surface into a sea of mud. By the end of it there were (and still are) 15-20 acres of reinforced concrete tank parks and, of course, some purpose built vehicular roadways.
Lowther Castle , uninhabited since 1935, was the centre for weapon development. Parkhouse, now our sheep handling area and pre-war a shepherd's cottage (it was largely destroyed) was the operational training headquarters. The weapon was a high intensity intermittent light fitted in tanks to illuminate a battlefield at night, code-named at the time CDL (Canal Defence Light) - no longer secret. It was reputed to have cost fifty million pounds (in 39-45 money) to develop at Lowther and was never used operationally. Throughout it all, food production (ploughing and cropping) and milk production were intensified on the militarily unoccupied Home Farm.
By then the Shorthorns were being bred up (based at Lowther Newtown) to become pure Dairy Shorthorns with, for them, very high milk yields; most of the farm (and Lowther Castle and several thousand acres of commons and tenanted land) was requisitioned by the War Office and became an area for the development of, and training of troops in the use of, a new weapon for tank warfare, in strict secrecy and high security. The farm land was fenced off and surrounded by a tall canvas barrier as a security screen, and one man only of the farm staff, Norman Hudson by name, security screened and on presentation of a pass, was allowed inside to shepherd the black-faced ewes. From time to time as many as 250 armoured fighting vehicles (mainly tanks) would be clattering about the place, destroying stone walls, ruining field drainage systems and rendering the surface into a sea of mud. By the end of it there were (and still are) 15-20 acres of reinforced concrete tank parks and, of course, some purpose built vehicular roadways.
Lowther Castle , uninhabited since 1935, was the centre for weapon development. Parkhouse, now our sheep handling area and pre-war a shepherd's cottage (it was largely destroyed) was the operational training headquarters. The weapon was a high intensity intermittent light fitted in tanks to illuminate a battlefield at night, code-named at the time CDL (Canal Defence Light) - no longer secret. It was reputed to have cost fifty million pounds (in 39-45 money) to develop at Lowther and was never used operationally. Throughout it all, food production (ploughing and cropping) and milk production were intensified on the militarily unoccupied Home Farm.