Our farmers must flourish: - Charles and his missus at Tack (fortress) Farm

Dear Roy, Mick and Carole, Tony and Ed

No chance for the spare gate to replace the leaning stile and steps.  But it was really good to meet Charles and his wife, even if only to thank them for feeding us and to ask them not to sell up to make themselves millionaires!  This is what happened:

After no reply from the first, I had to drop off a second postcard to ask Charles if we had his permission to replace the wonky stile with a gate. I put it in the postbox and was about to write down their phone number when a great 4x4 approached from the farm.  From through the driver's window came, 

"You are trespassing on my land."

"Are you Mrs Bibbey?  I'm wanting permission to replace a broken stile with a self-closing metal gate."

"Write to him about it then."

"I have, two months ago and put the postcard in the postbox over there.  But I got no reply, so I've just put another in the box."

"Would you allow some stranger to come up your drive and trespass like you have on our property?"

" If you came to my home, I would welcome you with open arms and give you a cup of tea or coffee.  If you didn't want me to trespass, why didn't you put the postbox on the first or even the second gate that was locked, barred and barbed wired?  You've got it on this third gate.  The first had a stile.  At the second, I left the bike and climbed the gate with barbed wire wrapped around the top to get to the box to ... "

"All right.  Leave this to me", said Charles who had arrived on the scene and heard some of this.  Charles, cousin of Philip Bibbey at Oatenfields is different from Philip Bibbey or John Bibbey.  Mrs Bibbey drove on to turn round to go back to the farmhouse.  And yet,

"Charles, you were great in helping Roy Burgess with the footbridge three or four years ago.  You have helped us with keeping walkers to the paths and with gates in the past.  The old stile that is so difficult is the very last that now needs a gate.  It's the one to the right of that building in the distance, on the footpath that extends the golf range road south."

"I don't like these gates.  They are a nuisance and get blocked open.  I know.  I've had experience of walkers getting out of Uffmoor Wood onto my land.  I've caught 'em with wire cutters.  You can straighten the stile but you are not to put a gate there."

"OK.  All right.  Let me tell you this.  Mick Freer, Roy Burgess and I want you to farm the land to feed us and not to sell to greedy property developers to bring buildings and roads onto our Golden Green Triangle greenbelt.  You've got a wheat field over there, next to Uffmoor Wood and I've just seen two deer in it.  Walkers would never do that.  They go round the outside.  You are so important; you're essential to give Halesowen people our food, locally.  We respect you and want you to keep farming and to help us all to keep the land that is for all of us.  We have to share it and you are desperately important to protect it."

As I walked back down the road, Mrs Bibbey arrived once more driving away from the farm.  She let me go through the gate with the barbed wire wrapped around the top bar and I picked up the bike.  But her little daughter was filming me with her iPad or phone as I walked towards her.  In the big Chelsea tractor, Mrs Bibbey just managed to squeeze past me as I cycled quickly along the road to the last gate.  Her daughter photographed me again because they got to the gate first.  Mum didn't let me go through that one.  I had to lift the bike over the stile, and she drove through the gate after me onto Uffmoor Lane!

Tim Weller