The Turner Family


Today’s farming life at The Grange continues to have real family involvement with John and Guy’s sister Jo running the farm office. The next generation of Sons, Daughters, Nieces and Nephews are also now to bringing their own diverse set of skills, which are so important for the next part of our journey, whether its Tom looking after our IT, Trudie with her artistic design skills, Jack with his steel forging work or Adam with his love of all things adventure! Our hope is that the future of farming at The Grange is one where the opportunity to be involved is far less constrained by the traditions of an inherited privilege and more one where a much broader range of skills, experience and inspiration can carry the farm along its next leg of the journey.



1895

1895

John & Caroline

John’s family farmed at Skellingthorpe, near Lincoln, but as one of 13 children, he needed to take his farming ambitions away from home and under the watchful eye of his uncle Ruben Flint, came to work on the Holywell Estate. He soon met a local girl, Caroline, and had ambitions to be married, but to do so, he would need better prospects than his present work offered. The Grange was at the time part of the Holywell Estate and by chance a vacant tenancy arose. The diaries kept by John, in beautiful copperplate writing, detail his endeavours, many of which were recognised through the prizes he was clearly very proud to receive.

1932

John "Jack" & Margaret

“Jack” began his professional career as a teacher before going on to work for the British Foreign Office. He worked in Khartoum at a time when Sudan was under a shared British and Egyptian administration, overseeing the use of precious water supplies to irrigate crops. A love of tropical agriculture and warm climates is something that would stay with Jack, including a number of years farming in Portugal during his retirement. However, the untimely failing of his father’s eyesight meant that his time in the Sudan was cut short and he returned home to help with what was now the family farm. The 1930s and immediate post-war period were challenging times for British farming, but Jack’s resourceful use of machinery and materials helped steer the farm through some of its most difficult times.

1932

John "Jack" & Margaret

“Jack” began his professional career as a teacher before going on to work for the British Foreign Office. He worked in Khartoum at a time when Sudan was under a shared British and Egyptian administration, overseeing the use of precious water supplies to irrigate crops. A love of tropical agriculture and warm climates is something that would stay with Jack, including a number of years farming in Portugal during his retirement. However, the untimely failing of his father’s eyesight meant that his time in the Sudan was cut short and he returned home to help with what was now the family farm. The 1930s and immediate post-war period were challenging times for British farming, but Jack’s resourceful use of machinery and materials helped steer the farm through some of its most difficult times.

1961

Anthony & Judy

Following time spent in the RAF Regiment 'Rock Apes' as his National Service, Anthony returned to Little Bytham, taking on Sheepwash Farm and with just 5 cows, began the dairy herd that was to become the main focus for the family farm for the following 45 years. Judy managed to juggle work as a supply teacher with the daily milking chores while at the same time raising their 4 children. Although retired, Anthony and Judy still live in the village, next door to Sheepwash Farm, and follow the farm’s changing patterns with the same keen interest.

1995

John & Guy

Brothers John and Guy have helped to steer the farm’s fortunes over the past 25 years – one that has taken an alternative path to the general trend yet one which has enabled us to stay true to the principles of good farming husbandry that the previous generations at The Grange strove to follow. The farm converted to organic principles in 1998, laying the foundations for so much of what the farm is able to do today. An ambitious scheme of tree and hedge planting was undertaken shortly afterwards, and a more formal 7-year crop rotation was introduced, which we still follow today.

1995

John & Guy

Brothers John and Guy have helped to steer the farm’s fortunes over the past 25 years – one that has taken an alternative path to the general trend yet one which has enabled us to stay true to the principles of good farming husbandry that the previous generations at The Grange strove to follow. The farm converted to organic principles in 1998, laying the foundations for so much of what the farm is able to do today. An ambitious scheme of tree and hedge planting was undertaken shortly afterwards, and a more formal 7-year crop rotation was introduced, which we still follow today.

2020