Articles from the Isle of Man
Glendown Farm
An Overview of Glendown Farm, near Cregneish, Rushen, IOM
Posted on the Q Notice Board 21 Jan 2002 by an unknown Q member from Isle of Man
Glendown Farm, which extends to about 300 acres, is situated
on the Truggan Road, Port St. Mary, yet is virtually in Port Erin,
and a newly proposed housing development threatens to encroach
on the boundary about 200 metres away from the farm.
The layout of the land, which is not really conducive to the dairy
farming that is carried out, runs from the Truggan Road to the
Howe, up to Cregneash, over to the Chasms and back up to Fistard.
There are nine Landlords in all with the smallest piece of land
leased being an acre.
The road from Port St Mary to Cregneash runs almost through the
middle of Glendown, so the cows have to be moved twice a day along
3/4 of a mile of this road. However, the road is kept reasonably
clean after they've been along by the road sweeper!
In 1986 the herd numbered 58 cows which was quite a big herd for
those days - because the Qualtroughs had a very fine milk round
in Port St Mary. This was their main enterprise at the time, and
had been for a number of years. It ceased to exist during the
80's (@83/84) because dairy farming with a milk round is not particularly
lucrative - a low price per pint, staffing situation, vehicle
maintenance costs, and costs of keeping the officials happy (cattle
passports, + lots of other paper work)!
So, during 1986 (after one of the worst summers on record in '85
- hay stocks were very poor) changes were made.
A silage pit was dug to make silage - pit silage is a lot cheaper
to make. The land is quite rocky and they get super crops of silage.
This was fairly revolutionary for a farm that had made hay for
generations!
A pipeline milker was also installed, followed by a hang down
milking parlour in about '88.
The herd has now increased to 85 cows.
They also keep 300 sheep which run on the area towards the Chasms.
This is a very picturesque area, but think of the walk on a winter's
day with an easterly gale! They also grow 20 acres of barley to
break the land up, keep the weeds down, and to provide a good
reserve feed for the sheep and cattle
James Shimmin from Cayman Islands, wrote in reply on 25 Jan
2002:
A good overview of "the Farm" - personally have fond
memories of working on the milk round in the 80's - I am sure
that my uncle William remembers fondly me learning to drive on
the Howe round !! I know that the farm has always been the spiritual
focal point for our section of the family and this continues with
Jane and Derek on the farm.
Jane Qualtrough Cain, who lives on and works Glendown Farm
with her husband, David Cain wrote this reply to the original
posting on 8 Feb 2002:
I also have fond memories of James on the milk round in the 80's. I'm sure the van would too if it was still around! Great to see the details of Glendown on the notice board. Who provided the details? Was it taken from my husband's radio interview on Manx Farming for Manx Radio(Sunday 19/1/2002).
The property now provides accommodation. Viist http://www.glendownfarm.com