An interview with Colin Withers by Russell Tanner, 28th April 2026
Russell So, Colin, how long have you lived in the village and how did your family come to take up residence here?
Colin I have lived in the village of Clutton all my life, which will soon be 69 years in June. My parents came to Clutton to Church Farm. My father was offered a tenancy in 1951, the year they got married. And, so I was born in 57, hence I'm coming up for 69 years old.
Russell Okay, where did they move from?
Colin My mother's family farmed at Dundry and my father's, my father's father farmed at Bishopsworth.
Russell And do you have very early memories of life on the farm here? What are your earliest memories?
Colin Earliest memories are probably getting involved with work on the farm, working with the animals. We had cows, sheep, a few pigs, hens, geese. So yes, I always wanted to be around livestock.
Russell So it was sort of more of a mixed farm.
Colin Very much so. Very much. Most farms were in those days. No crops, it was an all-grass farm, but we did have most forms of livestock.
Russell So how big would your milking herd be? I mean, it's about 100 these days.
Colin Yes, 100. Under my dad, it probably peaked at not many more than 40. And yeah, when my brother took over, my younger brother David, he eventually got up to 100, but that's been static now for probably 20, 25 years.
Russell And of course you were a pig breeder.
Colin Yes, I didn't want to milk cows. I remember my father being very tired and it was a big tie. I loved my sport and I had an uncle that kept pigs to a high level, high intensity and I was attracted to breeding pigs because they were more flexible. Yes, so I had pigs for 45 years, breeding mainly.
Russell And was that hard to give that up when you retired?
Colin No. When I reached the grand old age of just over 60, no, I was ready due to a few operations on my knees and hips which I needed. I had an opportunity to give them up and yes, it was a release from work that was becoming physically more difficult for me. Well, I did it, but I don't really miss them. And I don’t think the people of Clutton miss them either!
Russell The farm, it's always been a family operation. I mean, when did you when did you and David take over from your dad? When did he let you take over the reins?
Colin Yeah, in fairness to dad, he was pretty good. He never really interfered with me with the pigs because he wasn't a specialist in pigs. Not saying that I was. David went to agricultural college as I did. So when we came back, what was this, the early 80s that would have been when we took over. Back in the 70s, we bought some extra ground to increase the acreage of the farm from Tom Shepherd, a retiring farmer in Temple Cloud. And as I remember we went to the auction and bought, I think it was about nearly 70 acres of adjoining land. So we borrowed a lot of money. So then we had to buckle down and pay off the debt.
Russell So during your career as a farmer here in Clutton, the things that you enjoyed about the job, did they change over the years? And also how did the challenges that you faced, how did they change?
Colin Yes, the challenges changed. Certainly in the last few years, there's been a lot more regulation, which as I got older and more set in my ways, I didn't like. We were heavily audited, and the man that audits you was usually a failed pig farmer in my eyes. He wasn’t, trigger happy, but liked to catch you out on pernickety little things. Yeah, but anyway, I know I enjoy keeping pigs for many ewes. My brother still enjoys milking cows. Yes, no, it was a good life because you're always at home, surrounded by your family, got no travelling to do. The only drawbacks can be perhaps weekends when you'd like to be otherwise engaged, but if you've got livestock, you know, you're going to have to deal with them. Sheep, we had a lot of sheep at one stage, but you're only busy with sheep at certain times of the year. However, although managing intensive livestock like breeding pigs and milking cows may not be a round the clock operation, it does take up a good deal of every day. But it was a great life and I have no regrets.
Russell And with your nephew Will taking over. hopefully the future of farming in Clutton is assured for at least for the foreseeable future.
Colin Yeah, well, not the pigs because they went. But yes, Will is hopefully taking the milking herd on as my brother reaches retirement himself. Yes.
Russell Can you remember your early days living in the old farmhouse at Church Farm?
Colin Yes.
Russell What was it like living there when you were a lad. I presume it didn't have all of the modern home comforts, or were you a high-tech family?
Colin No, certainly not a high-tech family! It was a beautiful farmhouse, I loved living there. As you know, we've recently moved after 58 years to a very warm new house, Growing up in the old farmhouse, it was cold in the winter, but a beautiful house in the summer, and it had space, which is what I value with outdoor facilities; it's just lovely being surrounded by your family and your animals and, like I say, just generally appreciating the space and the freedom.
Russell What about your earliest memories of life in the village beyond the farm? Do you remember much about the village in the early to mid 1960s when you were a pupil at the primary school?
Colin Our lovely old head teacher, Mr. Bick, was a great guy from memory. Yeah, he always looked after us, encouraged my great love of football. I played for the village football team from age 15 to 40. Some would say not very successfully, but I enjoyed it. paid the price for it since with plenty of new knees and hips, but I wouldn't change a thing. Yeah, that was great. So yeah, Clutton School was lovely. In the early days, I think we used to come home for lunch because mother was always at home. I was at Clutton School in the days of the 11 plus. And, I think more by luck than judgment, I managed to scrape a pass to the grammar school at Midsummer Norton. But when I'd been there three years, I think in 1971, it went comprehensive. So it there big changes and yeah, I didn't enjoy it so much in my 4th and 5th years there. So after O-levels, I was dead set on leaving and being at home to start farming.
Russell And that was always going to be your destiny, was it?
Colin Yeah, I never any doubt that I would turn out to be a farmer. I didn't have any other thoughts other doing what I enjoyed. I do remember thinking though that if I didn't make a farmer, I quite fancied being a carpenter. But obviously that never arose because I had the chance to go farming. And yes, no regrets about my choice of career. While I did go to agricultural college three or four years after, I regretted the fact perhaps that I didn't do A-levels and have the opportunity of living and studying away from home. I managed to get away for a year in 1977-78 but only to Lackham College of Agriculture. However I really enjoyed my year there and have made some lifelong friends from that time, with whom I still keep in touch today.
Russell So When you weren't farming, when you weren't playing football, when you were in school, how did you spend your time in the village? Where did you go? Did you have like favourite places you used to go to? What hijinks did you get up to? Who did you hang around?
Colin The village lads used to migrate to Church Farm because we had the space. We had a grass tennis court. And so in the summer we played tennis. We were often caught by Dad playing football on it when we shouldn't have been because we were damaging the surface. So then we would end up in one of the fields and make our own goalposts, not just jumpers on the ground. We'd find some timber around the farm and make some goalposts. And sure enough, most days we'd be playing football or in the summer, cricket. That is, if we weren't haymaking, because in those days my mates would come down and help with the haymaking because it was much more manual then and we needed a lot of local labour whereas nowadays it's very mechanised and an awful lot of the strain is taken out of it.
Russell The village itself was quite different from the way it is now. I mean, parts may look very similar, but in terms of things like shops and businesses, we have very few. Whereas when you were growing up, there were shops that you could visit. There were places you could go and spend your pocket money, for example. So where did you use to frequent?
Colin Opposite the Warwick Arms there was a newsagent and a bit of a grocery store. Mr. Harris, who ran the shop, I remember, him well. And then he opened one up in Venus Lane, which later became the hairdressing salon and the curtain sewing place. But that was a supermarket originally. So, we had two supermarkets in the village, and there was a hardware store in the heart of the village just beside the school, which then became the butcher's shop, which, like all of the others, is now closed. There was the post office opposite when and a sweet shop three or four doors down from there. Yeah, they've all gone. There's nothing left in the village. I suppose the closest thing now is the Temple Cloud garage where you can get a few groceries but not everything you need like in Clutton when I was a lad.
Russell So did you used to go further afield very often - Did you go to Bristol? Did you go to Bath? Where did you go to for leisure and a spot of recreation when you were a late teenager?
Colin The local Young Farmers was my thing At age 16. I joined the Valley Young Farmers with my older brother Michael, who’s now in Cape Town and has been for many, many years. Soon my younger brother, David joined too and we played a lot of sport there. Hockey, I remember, was a big thing. We had meetings on interesting subjects connected with farming and yes, lots of social events. That's where I met my future wife and the rest is history. We will have been married for 43 years in a couple of weeks time. There we are. I'll finish there. Bit of a marriage bureau, as they say!
Russell So when you were that much younger and growing up in the village, do you remember any notable events? Did anything memorable happen?
Colin Yes. Well, I remember we used to flower shows, even the village flower show in those days, In those early days there probably were not quite as many people as we get nowadays but it still was quite an event. I remember very early years, well, probably when I was a teenager, it used to be held in the field, in the Avenue field at Church Farm, where along the Avenue by the public footpath, there used to be a gymkhana. And then for a number of years, following the flower show, there was a wrestling ring. Wrestling was very popular in the 60s, 70s and 80s. So, believe it or not, we had an evening of professional wrestling and the 8 or 10 wrestlers that were competing used to congregate in Church Farm before they all performed. And I can remember my mother going around locking up anything of value because they were some interesting characters that used to turn up in our kitchen! Later on we'd see them performing and it was quite an event. Of course in 1977 there was the Jubilee, The Silver Jubilee. I remember everybody dressing up, seeing my father in a big wig along with the infamous Aubrey, his main worker who’d worked for Dad since 1951 until his retirement and who passed away recently, Aubrey Wilcox.
Russell What about the railway? Do you remember it when it was still open - did you ever get on a train?
Colin I never did . But I do remember as a very young child having to let the milking cows across the railway line. And Dad would say, open the gate, let them across the railway line. And if you hear a train coming, close the gate quickly. And, I do remember cargo trains, not passenger trains which rumbled across the embankment through our fields during the early 1960s; those are strong early memories.
Russell I suppose the rise in the car population and the busyness of the roads and club must be one of the huge changes that you would remember about the way that life has changed in the village over the years.
Colin Yeah, very much so. We had the village shops which people walked to as there weren’'t the cars in the village. We didn’t have the rat runs either because a lot of people now use the village to access the A39 from the A37. When there are roadworks and diversions, you get torrents of cars, especially where my brother farms now coming up from the industrial estate, you know, up from Hallatrow. Yeah, that's just a fact of modern life, isn't it?
Russell So do you think it was a closer knit community back in those days, given the fact that people weren't traveling further afield every day and there were a lot of local businesses that people worked at or shopped at?
Colin So I suppose the village obviously had nothing like the people in, so a lot of village people that had been in Clutton for their whole life all knew each other very well. Nowadays I would know probably nearly as many people in the village, but from a much bigger total. When you have children, we had three children go to the local primary school at Clutton, and so in our day we knew a lot of the people through the children but less so now as we move into our late 60s. Newer people that you chat to out and about in the village seem to like living here although it hasn't got the facilities they would ideally like but the fact there's a school and a pub in the very the centre of the village are selling points as far as they’re concerned. What’s more, I think we have one big advantage over Temple Cloud We haven't got that busy A37 running through the middle of it. Nothing against Temple Cloud, but…
Russell Or the A37?
Colin Yeah, no, but it's not the best road, is it? If you live on the main road at Temple Cloud, life’s pretty noisy and hectic.
Russell So, have there always been a particularly place or places… on the farm somewhere, parts of the village or its surroundings that have been especially special places to you that you still like to visit, to look at the view, to think isn’t life wonderful?
Colin The Avenue that I mentioned earlier, the people at the top there, they have stunning views down through the valley, looking across to Greyfield Wood. Yes, so our fields run up to the A37 and it's very special if you're out in the field and you look down and you can't see all of our land, but you can see most of it. It does give you a sense of comfort and peace. I love this time of the year when everything blossoms into life and seeing cattle back in the fields.
Russell You mentioned a big part of your life outside of farming and outside of family life has been your association with Clutton Football Club. I know you’re I know you're still very much connected with the club. You would have watched most of their home games this season and presumably still some away games as well. But what were your abiding memories, I suppose, as a player when you were in your heyday? I mean, what was the thing for you that you most loved about playing for Clutton?
Colin Well, I was playing with most of a lot of the lads when we had a pretty good side in the late 70s. It was basically a village team. Less so now that there's lots of youngsters off to university. We had a particularly good side in the late 70s and we managed to win the Bristol and District League. Now which way round? 77, 78, 79. Unfortunately, the year I was at Agricultural College when I was 20 going on 21, I turned down the captaincy The manager, Bob Gilleland, asked me to be the captain for the season and I was meant to do farm duties once a month. So I turned it down, said I wouldn't make all the games. But I did.. As it turned out, the principal at the college let me get home on a Saturday to play for my village team. I played every game, every minute of every game, and we won the league in the Bristol & District First Division. And I still get teased by David Selway, lovely friend from the village many years ago, when I see him.. He got the captaincy; he picked up the cup at the end of the season when it should have been me. And the following year we won the Somerset Junior Cup, which was something Clutton had strived to win in the preceding 40 or 50 years. So those were probably my two favourite years at Clutton and we actually won the league and the cup, the only time Clutton have ever won it in their history.
Russell How much have has the facilities at the Warwick Field improved over the years?
Colin Immeasurably. When I started playing at Clutton there was a 19 foot slope from corner to corner. It was about that time in the mid-70s, that we managed to get permission to level the pitch. It was a big operation which required a lot of support and fundraising. And over the years, things have come on leaps and bounds. The clubhouse, the bar, better changing rooms and a kitchen, a youth team; unfortunately only one pitch still, but there's a good a lot of people that look after it now and the playing surface is great. And just recently they've managed to put down a load of tarmac. It looks amazing. It's really prospering and it's lovely to see.
Russell Would you ever consider moving to live somewhere else?
Colin I have no ambition to live anywhere else, .No, no, no, no, no, no I'm hoping to see out my days in the village of Clutton where I was born in bred.
Russell Well thank you Colin, thank you very much.