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Stuck in the middle with ewes
Stott Hall Farm, built in 1737, survived the bulldozers which forged the M62 across the Pennines from Yorkshire to Lancashire, and is perhaps one of the best-known domestic landmarks in England. Farmer Paul Thorp describes life in the middle to Roger Ratcliffe.
Everyone's intrigued by this place, and I suppose it's a bit of a novelty being stuck in the centre of a motorway. The first question most folk ask me is, "What's it like living there?" But I've known Stott Hall Farm so long I honestly don't consider it strange. I grew up on a farm near Holmfirth, so farming in the Pennines is in my blood. I came here when I was not long out of my teens to work for the old tenant farmer, Ken Wild. By the way, there's a great myth about him refusing to budge when they built the M62, and that's why the carriageways fork right round the farm. But the real reason is the geology at this point on the moor just couldn't support all those lanes side by side. It's too steep.
All the land is owned by Yorkshire Water, and they offered Ken and his wife Beth another place when the M62 was being planned, but Ken wanted to stay put. I took over after he passed away in 2004.
There's just me living up here now, plus my three border collies Bess, Jess and Cap, and a Jack Russell that's got so bloody awkward I have to shut it away when strangers come.
I'm 34 years old and single, and not sure if a house bang in the middle of a motorway would appeal to a prospective wife. A couple of years ago the BBC made a programme about the farm, and a lass who'd watched it got in touch with me and we started seeing each other. In the end, I don't think it was the motorway that put her off. She just found the job of farming a bit of a problem.
I'm out to all hours, dawn to dusk through spring and summer, and it's impossible to plan holidays. There's always work going on here, so I only get the odd night away, like a trip to Whitby with my mates at the back end of the year. But when it's lambing time, or shearing, or haymaking, I haven't got a minute to myself.
There's 2,500 acres to look after. I run a thousand breeding ewes a year and then their lambs. The breeds are mostly Derbyshire Gritstones and Whitefaced Woodlands. I'd be lying if I said I didn't find the motorway an inconvenience. No matter where I am on the land, I've always got to make a detour to come back to one of the 12-foot-wide tunnels running under the motorway, one beneath each carriageway. That gets frustrating, especially when the weather's bad and I just want to get home.
Sometimes it feels like I'm running a service station, not a sheep farm.
There's always someone come knocking, wanting to buy diesel or petrol, or borrow a car jack or wheel brace. I can usually fit folks up with whatever they want and get them going again.
I've had a few celebrities here. Sarah Lancashire and Pam Ferris came for a couple of days while filming Where The Heart Is, and the TV chef Jimmy Doherty featured me on a programme about his farming heroes. Otherwise it's a big lonely place. That's the main trouble. I mean,
in a way I'm surrounded by people but they're all flying past and folk
only turn up at my door when they need help.
I don't think pollution's much of a problem. There's that much wind up here it soon gets blown away. The main thing is the noise. In the yard I can't help but hear the traffic roaring past all the time. I've got to shout to make myself heard if I'm with somebody, and the sheep dogs can't hear commands when I'm trying to work them.
The farmhouse has triple glazing, but when it's warm in summer and I want a window open at night I can't sleep. It's
not so bad when I first go to bed, but it starts getting busy at about four o' clock in the morning and the noise always wakes me up.
There's been quite a few accidents over the years. One morning an articulated lorry came right through the fence and landed in the yard.
There's always cars and caravans coming through, and I have to go and get the fence up so my sheep don't run on to the motorway and create bloody havoc. The odd sheep does get out, and the police have to hold up the traffic while I catch it with one of my dogs. I'm always finding stuff that's fallen off lorries or cars, things like golf clubs and hockey sticks, a pushbike and even a wardrobe door. One day there were these great bundles of Yellow Pages that someone was probably paid to deliver, but they never got any further than the top of the motorway.
Cars don't interest me much, but I find it fascinating to watch some of the big wagons that go past. Just about everything you can imagine goes up and down here, things like aeroplane fuselages, steam train engines and railway carriages. And there's loads of these mobile cranes, maybe 20 or 30 a day going up and down, both ways. It seems to me that firms out of Leeds must take them over to Manchester, and firms out of Manchester must take their cranes to Leeds. I've often wondered why builders don't just use local firms.
There are some negative sides to being up here. For one, I can't get Channel Five or digital TV channels. And the nearest supermarket's way down at Sowerby Bridge. I stock up the freezer, usually stuff like beef for a stew, or frozen fish and chips. Not lamb, though. I despise the bloody stuff! I see enough of them running around.
But the place has some good points. For one thing, if you want something delivered they always know where the house is.
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Weather for Yorkshire
Saturday 04 February 2012
Today
Light snow
Temperature: -1 C to 1 C
Wind Speed: 20 mph
Wind direction: South
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Sunny spells
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