Auchengray Farm, New Abbey, Dumfries-Shire. 1981
We moved to Auchengray Farm on November 28th1981 from Woodend Farm. Auchengray is set in the beautiful countryside of Dumfries-shire between New Abbey and Beeswing, amidst stunning scenery of hills, forests and nearby loch.
Family friend Sammy Baird moved our stock, machinery, hay and straw, totalling about 20 loads altogether. We started at Auchengray Farm with 400 ewes and about 60 suckler cows, some Highland cows I had at Knownoble and about 30 young stock. Johnny came down first to look after the animals and the house and stayed on his own for two or three weeks till everyone joined him, it was a very cold winter that year.
This was a new life for all the family. Andy started at CargenbridgePrimary School and later went to DumfriesAcademy where he did well with his studies and left at sixteen years old to work on the farm. Willie also worked with Betty and I on the farm as he had already left school before we moved. Johnny did too then he got itchy feet and went off to travel after a while which I have written in more detail about later. Anne went to Heathhall Technical College in Dumfries to do a Cookery Course after which she went on to a sales job, work in a newsagent in Dumfries and then at the Lochanhead House Hotel, which she ran years later with Betty and I have written about in more detail later. Anne also liked to help out on the farm when not at her job. Liz was working in Jersey at this time then went on to work in Israel for more than a yearafter which travelled through Turkey, Greek Islands and Europe ending up in London working there for 14 years.
Highland cows at Auchengray
When we came to Auchengray the water supply came down from the well field into a pond at the back of the steading which I imagine years back when it was full you opened the door to let the water flow down to drive the mill wheel which thrashed the oats. The water supply still comes from the well field for the outbuildings for the livestock. I think it would be very interesting looking into the history of Auchengray and seeing some photos.
On moving I found I had to change the sheep policy as I came up against troubles I did not know of before. One of the worst troubles was sheep pine or lack of cobalt and as this is a granite area we had to dose them regularly with cobalt drench. Also I started rearing my own replacements which if they were reared on the farm they were resistant to tick pyaemia which Auchengray was bad with. Also the only breeding sheep I bought each year came form the same farmer in a tick area a Mr. Gourlay up at Moniaive. I always bought blackface ewes and put a Leicester tup with them so I could keep the ewe lambs for breeding with each year. I also had the same problem with cattle but bred my own replacements for breeding with after learning about problems in this area, things went very well.
Auchengray was farmed in such a way that we did not use contractors or buy in feed. We grew about 40 acres of barley, oats and a good lot of hay and filled all the sheds with small bales which we cut and baled ourselves.
Willie, Andy and I worked well together working hard every day as there is no time for days off in farming, we had a lot to do and the way it usually worked was Willie and I worked with the sheep and Andy preferred working with his cows and tractor work. When Johnny was there he was happy doing any kind of jobs and liked to be back on the family farm working with the animals.
Potato picking
We only had Ronnie Taylor the blacksmith from New Abbey to combine the barley and oats which was prop corned and put up in the loft of the barn, so we never needed to buy any feeding for the cattle or sheep. We bruised barley with the tractor and grew about 3 acres of potatoes and 6 acres of turnips. We had Margaret McLatchie from Moss yard and Tom Beattie from Riddlebank help us hoe, single the turnips and lift the potatoes, and we shawed the turnips with a shawing machine.
Potato picking me and Tam Beattie featured
Me Willie, Andy and Tam Beattie lifting turnips
Auchengray had lots of room for improvement to the fields, we started by taking out the stones in the Well Field as we called it and the field above which was covered in brackens and was a mass of stones. Norman Robertson dug them out with his JCB digger and carted them off with his dump trailer and he had to blow up the very big ones to get them out. I ploughed the fields after him with a single furrow plough which took a long time as the soil was so hard. We put rape in the first year and next it was barley. The next year we took stones out of 2 fields at Barlay Farm, it was just like a quarry and Norman Robertson spent about a month with Willie taking out the stones and boring the big ones and blasting them out. Norman loaded the trailer up and Willie carted them away with the big trailer and dumped them in a large heap through on the rough part of the hill. This job took both of them two months working at it every day.
Me drilling turnips
I ploughed these fields too with a single furrow plough using the Fordson Major tractor and again it was very hard to plough and there were still lots of stones to lift after they were ploughed.
We took a crop of turnips and barley off them. I sowed the barley the first year with my grain drill and it turned out to be a good crop, the second year we took a crop of barley again and the third year took a crop of turnips off it and potatoes which turned out very good then back to barley and sowed out with permanent grass seed mixture and it is now a good grass field. Each year I did another field the same way until we had done about 80 acres of the farm. I did all the ploughing and grass seed sowing myself.
I took many photos over the years with me and the boys at work as well as all the beautiful scenery all around us and have added them in to show all the hard work that was involved but it was very rewarding.
Sheep and lambs in wee field at front of farm
Sewing the oats
Re-seeding
Getting fields ready for the oats
The second 14 acre thrash field gave us the same problem again with lots of stones to dig out and was not easy for the boys laying the tiles. Johnny Clarkson had not expected the job to take so long and had to go to another job. We got Ronnie Taylor to lift and dig out big stones with his crawler tractor and Willie and Johnny carted stones off the field with trailers. I ploughed the fields with a single furrow plough and got the combine field sown with barley and took crop barley for two years and turnips and potatoes for one.
Andy on the combine and me in tractor
The thrash field I ploughed with a single furrow plough then sowed with rape for the sheep and next year I sowed with grass seed. I never took any crops from it but it is still a very good grass field. I ploughed the fields myself with the single furrow plough and we cropped the combine field with barley and turnips and sowed the thrash field in grass.
Another problem when we came to Auchengray I found was the tick which lived in the brackens and rough grazing grass. I decided to reclaim and reseed as much as possible the first year and did 10 acres which mostly had bracken on it. By 1986 the boys were not keen on doing any more improvements to Auchengray. Willie and Andy started taking grazing away from home and grazed cattle at friend Derek Dunlop’s up the top of Mabie forest in the winter time. I used to go and feed them every day and we grazed some ewes there as well. We grazed cattle up at Lochbank Farm for two years before they planted it with trees.
View of Loch Arthur
View of Loch Arthur from Lochbank Farm
Wull and AndyBaling oats
Andy combining
Margaret McLatchie, Mossyard with Tim
When we came to Auchengray we made friends with the lady called Margaret McClatchie who lived at Mossyard, which was a cottage just along the road from us with about 20 acres. Margaret had lived there with her mother all her life and when we arrived her mother had died leaving her living there alone with her couple of cows, her ducks and hens. Margaret became a very good friend and used to help us singling turnips, lifting the potatoes and helping Betty with the gardening.
Margaret told us she came to Mossyard in the 1920s in a pram with her mother who came to work as housekeeper to Mr. Moody who lived at Mossyard and was a dyker and in later years when he died, she farmed Mossyard with her mother.
During the war Margaret worked at the ammunition factory at Dalbeattie then went on to work as a maid for Mr and Mrs McMillan at Overton in New Abbey and maid to Mrs McMillan when her husband died. Margaret was given 2 goats by our Andy and she reared a calf with the milk, her 3 cows were bulled by our bull and we sold calves for her every year. We also cut her hay, baled it and put it into her shed, by this time she had retired and just looked after her stock. Margaret always had a cup of tea and biscuit or homemade cake ready for us and at New Year I was always her first foot and she had a bottle of whisky ready, I think it was the same bottle for a number of years. Margaret had no electricity or telephone and still used gas lamps also with no television she listened to the radio for all her news. Margaret was very happy living like this and what she never had she never missed. Sadly Margaret was robbed one night and got a big scare and after this Betty insisted she get a phone installed so she could always call us if she had any problem or if she became ill. Margaret had lived there for seventy years and that was the first time she had been broken into. Margaret also decided to get electricity installed and was very pleased she had done so however she never ever bothered to get a television and if there was ever anything special on she could come up to Auchengray to watch it with us.
Margaret cycled up to help us at Auchengray.
Mossyard
Me, Willie, Mick dropping off hay at Margaret McClatchy’s
Margaret once said we were like family to her as everyone looked out for her or popped in for a visit to see her at some time in the day. I would go in either in morning or night and the boys too when feeding the cows in her fields as the feeding was kept in her hay shed. We also gave her Badger the collie who kept her company after her collie dog Tim who we also gave her died. Margaret was a real character and later on when she was not able Betty would go in every night and put a big fire on for her. In fact you could almost write a story on Margaret herself
Ivy one of the Anglo Nubian goats with her kid and Joe in background
In 1983 when Andy the youngest of my family was fifteen he took up keeping pedigree goats which did two jobs with the goats proving to be excellent foster mothers for lambs and he fed his young calves with their milk. Goat’s milk is also good for hospital patients or people with intolerance to cow’s milk. A neighbour of ours Mr. Pattie always got some for his son who was only allowed to drink goat’s milk. Andy got a lot of milk from the goats and they averaged eight pints of milk a day if fed on bruised barley. Andy’s goat herd increased over a year or two quite a bit and he kept a few different breeds including British Saanens, British Alpine and a cross British Toggenberg, a lot of people also bought them from him for pets.
The first nanny Andy acquired was a white one called Millie. Millie gained reserve overall champion at Ayr Show when Andy and Betty showed her, it is a big show and the classes are very strong. Andy also showed at the local shows and always
did well winning prizes. The local Dumfries Standard did a one page article as well about Andy and his goats which we were all really proud of. Andy gave Margaret Mclatchie at Mossyard two goats for her to milk and feed her calves, she was delighted. Margaret milked them by hand and fed the calves by teat on a pail. Andy kept all the goats inside at winter time and out to grass in summer.
In 1984 Johnny went to Canada to work at the harvest at Don Chapman's station in Alberta. Don Chapman was Granny Boyd's cousin and he had emigrated there many years ago. Johnny stayed there for about 3 months and came home and worked for a while then went to Australia for 6 months to work and travel. He also went to New Zealandvisiting Betty's cousins, Pauline and George Williamson who had a Kiwi Fruit farm and worked there for while then returned home but was unsettled. Liz was in London at this time so Johnny went down and stayed with her to find work and trained in the building trade, he was always kept busy, this would have been around 1986. Johnny returned to Australia again which was when I visited him and is in my Australian story later on. Andy and Willie worked on the farm as Andy had left school in 1984.
In 1984 Glensone came up for let through Castle Douglas market and I took part of it and Donald Smith had some and Mr. McTaggart got the rest. Next year Rorymore took fields and I got the rest. In 1985 Mr Gladstone took over the management and I rented all of the ground every year. In 1985 Mr Drummond, owner of the farms Kinharvie, Kissock and Drungans put Drungans up for sale and Shambellie bought the sheds and silage pit and added it to Auchengray.
We also had fields down at the Fisheries, just past Barlay Farm. It is a beautiful spot but very bad for the ticks on the animals as there are a lot of trees there. I used to know all the fishery workers and usually every day when we were feeding the cows or sheep I would have a blether. The first owners I knew were Mr and Mrs Castle who lived at Barlay first then moved to one of the cottages at the fisheries, they were there for many years and moved to just outside Kirk bean. The last owners I knew restored the big house to its former glory as well as running the fishery as business, it was beautiful inside, and Liz took me to visit the lady who was French after his husband died. She always liked to have a chat with me and was a lovely person.
I got to know so many people over the years along that New Abbey road and would have a chat to everyone I passed throughout the day and was renowned in my Land Rover with the dogs and smoking my pipe.
Fisheries cottage Fisheries Chapel
Cutting and loading silage
By this time with more land we increased our cattle numbers and began making silage, we got the contractor Derek Cartner to cut and buck rake the silage into the pit at Drungans, we hauled it in with his trailers and then bought a combine of our own as we were growing more crops and Andy combined our own. Willie was kept busy with the sheep, we then went on to rent the field at Drungans from Mike Jacobs after he stopped keeping sheep and goats of his own.