Club Weekly Meeting

 Denis Parton, who was inducted into the Club  having transfered from the Rotary Club of Tarporley, following his move to Nantwich, gave his 'My Job' talk.

Fellow Rotarians – it’s a difficult subject to talk about oneself – I am a modest man – but as Robin Latham says, I have plenty to be modest about.  I hope what I have to say doesn’t sound like an obituary, but when you reach 70 years of age, your best years are probably behind you.

I was lucky with my choice of parents.

I was born on the 18^th July, 1943 at the Kings Lynn Nursing Home, Willaston.  A healthy baby until I was 12months old when I contracted Pink’s Disease, discovered by a Dr. Pink, which was caused by an additive in teething solutions believed to be mercury.  It killed 93 % of babies who went down with it.  I was again lucky that the family Doctor was a Dr. Robinson (and I notice that an ex President of the Club is a Dr. Robinson) and he saved my life, but  it did leave me with poor health for a long time and I was over 6 yrs  old before starting Weston Primary School.

So it was unbelievable when I passed the entrance exam for Sandbach School when I was 8 and I still don’t understand how I passed.  It was here that I first met Robin Latham, but of course even then he was very much older than me.  At the end of the first term I was placed 23^rd equal out of a class of 24, but am pleased to say that end of my last term I was 2^nd !!  My father insisted that I take my O levels although it was possible to leave at 15 in those days and most farmers sons did.

The friends that you make when you leave school are very important.  You are vulnerable at that age and the wrong friends can lead you astray.  Again I was lucky with 4 very good friends.  After watching a film either in Crewe or next door at the Regal, starring Jack Hawkins, we took the name of the film as our name, and became The Grand Order of the League of Gentlemen – determined to remain bachelors.  We organised Fancy Dress Dances in aid of the British Empire Cancer Campaign, in various local Village Halls and Schools, with a local dance band called The Melody Makers run by someone called Gerald Emerton – I wonder what happened to them and him ?

We all moved on to Nantwich Young Farmers where I was again lucky to be a member during a purple period for the  Club, winning most of the county competitions.

I think the Club had 240 paid up members in the year I was lucky enough to be Chairman and was supposed to be the largest Young Farmers Club in the U.K.

During this time the Cheshire School of Agriculture became the Cheshire College of Agriculture and started doing advanced Farm  Organisation  and Management Courses and I was lucky that I had more than the minimum requirement of 5 ‘O’ levels to be able to apply, which I did and I went to see the Principal, Mr. George England (an ex member of this club) , was accepted and fortunately managed to pass with a credit.

I was again lucky that with my qualifications and YFC successes, I managed to obtain the tenancy of Boothouse Farm, at the age of only 24 and moved in at 25, almost unheard of at that age, then as now.

My greatest stroke of good luck was in my choice of a wife or her choice of a husband.  Sheila, a Nantwich Grammar School girl, who worked as a Secretary to Jim Major at the NFU Office here in Pepper Street, Nantwich, and who had also been a keen  member of Nantwich YFC, indeed she became County Lady Chairman.

We had 45 successful and happy years at Boothouse Farm and went from 8 cows purchased in a commercial auction in Carlisle, to a herd of 180 full pedigree cows and 140 young stock when I sold them and was proud that my herd was in the top 3% in the country on PIN value when I sold them.

After I had been at the farm for 12 months I had a phone call from John Cooper (my accountant) to say that Nantwich Rotary Club wished to nominate me for a group study exchange tour in California which was for 6 weeks from the end of April to the beginning of June.  I was under no pressure as I was the only name put forward!  I tried all ways to find a way to say yes, but I didn’t employ anyone then and very reluctantly had to say no.

Some 4 years later I received a letter from the Worshipful Company of Farmers asking me to go for an interview at the Farmers Club in London for a place on an advanced Farm Management Course at Wye College, London University.  I had never heard of the Company of Farmers or the Farmers Club, but Sheila was insistent, having had to turn down the Rotary offer, that I at least went for the interview, which I did and was one of the 16 chosen for the course, and I learnt a lot on the course.  I should say that I had a staff of 1 by then !

I was very keen on the pedigree records and milk records of my herd, and one month when a freshly calved heifer had been ill on recording day, she missed her weighing which meant she received no figures for 30 days (or 10% of her lactation).  I thought this was unfair and wrote to the Cheshire Committee, who then asked me to attend their next meeting and explain my solution which was to use a computer generated average.  The Committee listened, liked my suggestion, and the Member who was on the National Committee said he would take my proposal to it’s next meeting.  This was accepted nationally, and now all missed weighings are replaced by a computer generated estimate.  The downside of this, was that I was asked to join the Committee and some time later had the honour to be Chairman for 2 years and I was followed by a certain Vic Croxson.

When I started milk production in 1969 I chose to send my milk to Healds Dairies in Manchester.  Every month they published a list of the 10 farmers producing the cleanest milk with a