ABOUT US
Penelope Bossom, owner of Overbury Farms, has a team led by Farm Manager, Jake Freestone. From a farming background himself, Jake manages five staff, one of whom is the full time shepherd. Where the team once comprised about thirty men, larger machinery and new technology enables just four highly-skilled men, all living on the Estate, to carry out all the farming activities through out the year.
Graham, Tim, Derek, Gordon and Tod have worked for Overbury Farms for a combined total of well over 150 years! All five have seen dramatic changes on the farm during their lifetimes, not least in the size and complexity of machinery; as machinery grew in power, the number of men required to do the work dropped. All have their own particular skills, but all work together as a team.
Graham Matty
Graham is responsible for a number of jobs on the farm including pea-drilling (sowing) and rolling. In charge of the Grain Drier and Grain Storage, Graham started at Overbury since the early 70's and has an unrivalled knowledge of the system; during a wet harvest, grain cut by the combine comes into Drier in order to reduce moisture to the required level. On a ‘normal’ year grain solely requires cleaning and storing. He records full details of crops harvested in order to maintain traceability requirements by buyers and will oversee collection of grain from storage. Alongside Derek and Gordon, Graham carries out general maintenance of the farm, such as erecting and repairing fences.
Tim Stanford
Tim (cousin of Derek and Gordon) carries out the majority of the annual spraying operation (when weather conditions permit), which involves not only chemical pesticides but also liquid fertilisers. Tim’s major responsibility is all-year round farm machinery maintenance including welding and sourcing new/replacement parts. When the crops are ripe (July/August), and the weather is right, Tim is the main operator of the John Deere S690 combine harvester, now with GPS/Autotrac.
Derek Stanford
With over 30 years experience of ploughing and cultivating, Derek is now driver of a John Deere 8530 with the new Vaderstat Topdown, an “all-in-one” cultivator, the output of which is around 86 acres a day. Irrigation (and maintenance of the irrigation equipment) of potatoes and salad onions is also Derek’s responsibility, along with his share of crop-spraying and grain-hauling during harvest. General farm maintenance (fencing, pollarding etc) is carried out by Derek, Graham and Gordon.
Gordon Stanford
Gordon has worked for Overbury Farms since he was 16 – a total of 31 years; older brother Andrew retired from Overbury Farms in 2009 after 48 years’ service. Gordon’s role on the Farms includes twenty miles of hedge-cutting annually, working alongside the shepherd during lambing; digger operator (for land-drain maintenance, road-making, building work, landscaping etc); grain-hauling during harvest and, having taken over from Andrew, drilling crops (sowing) with the new Simba Horscht drill. Along with Derek and Graham, Gordon will keep an eye on the ditches and culverts and other general farm maintenance such as fencing, stone-walling and tree maintenance.
Tod Phillips
The youngest member of the team (still clinging to his 30s), Tod is Shepherd on the Farm, looking after a flock of 1100, consisting Mules (Blue-faced Leicester rams/Swaledale ewes) and Texels. The main lambing season is in April (the rams having been put to the ewes in November) when the grass is growing well, ready for grazing. Overbury Lamb is sold in many outlets from local pubs to Sainsbury’s, where it’s labelled Cotswold Lamb. Looking after the flock is a full-time job in itself, but Tod also fits in his share of bale- hauling and grain-hauling during harvest along with some stone walling and rolling.