Ron Smith’s 51 years of service to his local farm are coming to an end. The 72-year-old Hollesley resident has been a familiar presence at Wantisden Hall Farms near Butley since he started in June 1971. He has only now decided to retire due to a problem with his hip.
He recalled how life at the farm had changed since he first started, when he would pick the potatoes by hand, load them into boxes and stack them onto lorries to be taken away to be sold. Of course this switched to tractors and potato harvesters costing hundreds of thousands of pounds.
The grandfather-of-four said he would miss the "camaraderie" with his colleagues the most as there were a number of employees at the farm, off Drysdale Bottom, who had worked there for many years. "They are a good bunch of blokes who work there and nearly everyone gets on nicely. You might get the odd hiccup, but generally everyone gets on fine," he said.
Source: eadt.co.uk
