Proving the nay-sayers were wrong

When Ben and I took over the tenancy at Fordhall Organic Farm – April 2004 – we were 19 and21 years old. We were young, we were naïve and we were learning every day.

We knew from the start, that paying the rent on 140 acres of Fordhall meant we needed to maximise our income, and with only 11 cows, six pigs and six sheep, that meant selling what we had direct to the public.

So, we opened our first farm shop. However, our tenancy was only 18 months. The landlord still intended to sell the farm for development. His intentions were clear.

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How were we going to farm at Fordhall long-term?

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We didn’t know. We knew we needed help.

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But, in 2004 social media was not mainstream, people still picked up newspapers, wrote letters and paid by cheque.

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So, with Dad (Arthur Hollins) by our side at the time, we went to meet people face-to-face. Farmers’ markets, local fetes, agricultural shows and events. Promoting our produce and asking for help to save Fordhall Farm from development.  This photo was taken at the Market Drayton Taste of the Town event held at The Grove School in 2004.  

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It was through events like this that we met some of our founding board members, including Bex Syrett, Cadi Price and Philippa Atkey and many others, some of whom are no longer with us today.

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We met people who had belief in us, in the farm, in the vision. They brought us hope.

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We continued to attend every event we could. A turning point for us was at the end of May2006. I had attended Staffordshire Agricultural Show. We sold out of sausages and there was lots of interest in our story and the campaign. By that time, we had launched community shares and had 4 weeks remaining to still raise over£300,000!

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The farming community had always been our biggest cynics. This was not new to us. Dad had on the outside of the farming community his whole life – going organic in the 1940s was not ‘the done thing’. But Dad didn’t mind. He knew in his heart organic farming was right for Fordhall, that working with and alongside nature was going to bring our land resilience and fertility.

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Community-ownership was even more ‘out-there’. So, it wasn’t surprising that Ben and I came up with so much suspicion.

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However, at the Staffs County Show that May, I had a particularly frustrating conversation with a farmer. He asked how the campaign was going, and no matter what I said, he was adamant that we would not raise the money in time. We were not going to reach our £800,000 target by 1^st July.

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I tried to convince him that it could be possible. We’d had so much press already. BBC Midlands, the Telegraph, Country Living Magazine, Guardian and others. We already had thousands of shareholders.

But he was adamant and I was upset and frustrated. How could he tell me what was possible and not possible? Who was to say that someone was not going to knock on our door the following week with a huge cheque!

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Well, it is interesting what happens in these situations. You either feel low and down because someone is stripping the hope from your heart. Or, as I did, you get even more determined to make it possible. If, for no other reason, than to prove that one person wrong.

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Well, on the20^th anniversary of us attending the Staffordshire County Show thisweek, I say thank you to that farmer. Thank you to all the ‘nay-sayers’.

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Alongside the thousands of people who had hope in us, those that didn’t just made us stronger, more determined and more focused.

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Sometimes, those ‘nay-sayers’ can be just as powerful as those who have hope and belief in you.

It is something that I am reminded of every day when I walk into Arthur’s Farm Kitchen at Fordhall and see the flying pig on our ceiling.

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They said ‘Pigs might fly’ – well, they do when you believe in them!

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Charlotte Hollins

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