1946 - Farm restored by Westmorland War Agricultural Executive Committee
Following the completed departure of the army by the end of 1946, restoration could get under way but, of course, food shortages and the need for intensive agricultural production remained, then absolutely paramount.
The 5 th Earl of Lonsdale ("The Yellow Earl") died in 1944 and at 80% there was a very large Capital Tax bill, so resources were limited for family input. The War Office declined the restoration project themselves and passed the task over to the then existing Westmorland War Agricultural Executive Committee (WWAEC), otherwise known as the War Ag. Their C.E.O. was Mr D T Adam from a well known Aberdeenshire Angus breeding family, and he made the restoration of Lowther farming land his prime aim, almost his "life's work".
A word about the farm:- the area of the then Home Farm was 550 acres, mostly limestone grassland, or limestone loam, with a few patches of boulder clay - pretty useful, so that now most of it is non-L.F.A. Elevation is 600-800 feet, rainfall about 40 inches per annum average.
The rest of the 3000 acres which became known as the Beef Farm, a fair bit of limestone grassland (mud and thistles in 1946) but mostly boulder clay (deeper mud and denser thistles), was the restoration area. The army had reduced the number of deer; the black-faced sheep were still there; there were no longer any Galloways ; there were virtually no farm buildings or crop stores and only one surviving cottage. The elevation is 700 feet up to 1032 feet and rainfall up to 50 inches.
The War Ag tackled 300-400 acres per annum, closing off these acres with temporary fencing, bulldozing and grading and ditching (no tile drainage, no water supplies). They built an operational/cropstore unit construction erected on an erstwhile concrete tank park as their centre. (It is still there, next door to our later cow and calf wintering sheds - one of the stops on the farm tour.) By about 1950 the War Ag had done as much as they could - levelling and ditching and pioneer cropping, so the land was finally de-requisitioned, with some modest compensation for destroyed infrastructure.
The Chairman’s father, who was also a member of the War Ag, died at the end of 1949, and his grandfather who had succeeded his elder brother as Lord Lonsdale in 1944, also died, early in 1953, by which time some additions to the War Ag's work had taken place.
The 5 th Earl of Lonsdale ("The Yellow Earl") died in 1944 and at 80% there was a very large Capital Tax bill, so resources were limited for family input. The War Office declined the restoration project themselves and passed the task over to the then existing Westmorland War Agricultural Executive Committee (WWAEC), otherwise known as the War Ag. Their C.E.O. was Mr D T Adam from a well known Aberdeenshire Angus breeding family, and he made the restoration of Lowther farming land his prime aim, almost his "life's work".
A word about the farm:- the area of the then Home Farm was 550 acres, mostly limestone grassland, or limestone loam, with a few patches of boulder clay - pretty useful, so that now most of it is non-L.F.A. Elevation is 600-800 feet, rainfall about 40 inches per annum average.
The rest of the 3000 acres which became known as the Beef Farm, a fair bit of limestone grassland (mud and thistles in 1946) but mostly boulder clay (deeper mud and denser thistles), was the restoration area. The army had reduced the number of deer; the black-faced sheep were still there; there were no longer any Galloways ; there were virtually no farm buildings or crop stores and only one surviving cottage. The elevation is 700 feet up to 1032 feet and rainfall up to 50 inches.
The War Ag tackled 300-400 acres per annum, closing off these acres with temporary fencing, bulldozing and grading and ditching (no tile drainage, no water supplies). They built an operational/cropstore unit construction erected on an erstwhile concrete tank park as their centre. (It is still there, next door to our later cow and calf wintering sheds - one of the stops on the farm tour.) By about 1950 the War Ag had done as much as they could - levelling and ditching and pioneer cropping, so the land was finally de-requisitioned, with some modest compensation for destroyed infrastructure.
The Chairman’s father, who was also a member of the War Ag, died at the end of 1949, and his grandfather who had succeeded his elder brother as Lord Lonsdale in 1944, also died, early in 1953, by which time some additions to the War Ag's work had taken place.