Farewell to Will

Our senior Hereford stock bull, Will, has finally gone to his new home. It’s been a long saga since the spring when the farm where he was had a T B reactor so I was unable to sell him. Then after the farm had two clear T B tests, a buyer came ‘out of the blue’. Ben arrived on the farm with his son to see Will. After a short time discussing and haggling, he decided to buy the bull, subject to yet another pre-movement T B test. Will passed the test only to find for the second time we were under FMD movement restrictions.
Then at last the day came to move Will to his new home near Whitchurch. At the farm Terry was waiting to help load the animal. Terry had been farming at Hill Farm for many years. Will was cooperative, walking into the trailer without too much fuss. As he went in Terry said
“ ‘e’s bin a good ‘un”. “ He inna as well known as the other ‘un”, he added. Terry was referring to Will’s predecessor, Henry or rather Oakedge 1 Braveheart. Henry had been in the BBC programme ‘Green Green Grass’ as Rocky.
Back in the ‘60’s I had been in school with Terry at Lea Cross. Our family moved from Shropshire to Rickmansworth in Hertfordshire. At that time it wasn’t ‘the done thing’ to speak with a regional accent, so we were sent to elocution lessons. The result was that accents we had weren’t like the people where we were living and when we came back to Shropshire for holidays we didn’t fit in there either. Then a few years ago I moved back to within a stones throw of where both of my grandparents had farmed.
I was taking a man to Shrewsbury who had recently moved into the area. Just to make the journey more interesting I pointed out various things of note. I found myself saying, “ the house just up here on the right is where I was born”. As we drove passed, out of the corner of my eye I noticed my travelling companion mouthing the name ‘Cliffdale Residential Home for the Elderly’. It wasn’t long before he asked, “how old was your mother then?” I laughed, “it was a nursing home many years ago. I’ve often thought I should get myself booked in so that I can end up where I started”.
The tailboard closing noisily brought me back from this daydream. Our journey over to Wem was uneventful. Will hardly moved in the trailer. At Ben’s farm Will was unloaded into some Friesian heifers. On the way back I was thinking - Will has some new friends, Ben has a new bull, and I have a cheque. At least we will be able to eat this week!