50 Years ago.
I’m not sure if we’ll be able to keep this up, but I will give it ago. This year the project at East Shallowford, that many of us support and have benefitted from, began 50 years ago, when Elizabeth Braund and Rosemary Bird purchased the farm.
As part of 50 years’ celebration, we will be interviewing 50 people or collecting a story from them, to make up a 50 story book, and at the end of the year to plant at least 50 trees on the farm.
If we can keep it up, we will also share a story once a week, on a Thursday, a sort of Throwback Thursday on the Shallowfordfarm FaceBook page.
Not surprisingly we started with Elizabeth Braund herself.
Elizabeth Braund – 50 Years ago
Fifty years ago this month, Elizabeth Braund and Rosemary Bird had already spent their first Christmas and New Year on Dartmoor, and had established a pattern of bringing young people to Widecombe.
Nine months later, they would have been established at East Shallowford Farm, with the first group of young people there. Young people have been staying there ever since.
In an interview with the BBC, Elizabeth said, ‘This idea of having them at all, came from me having lived among the families in south London and knowing very well the life of the housing estates and how cramped it is in many ways and how a lot of kids grow up there.
‘Young people see growing things and they may vandalise them, probably not realising what they are looking at, and very often don’t have the opportunity of going out of London into a real country situation.
‘We wanted to give that opportunity. Here at Shallowford, they have to share in the life of an ordinary farm. And that means they have things to do in the house. And that means, too, they begin to work together.’
Elizabeth went onto say: ‘We’ve got a lot to be very, very grateful for in the way it has been and the people who have supported us along the way
‘Hundreds of kids and several generations have been part of this, and the young people who’ve grown up themselves and then come back to us, and have been a great help to us and come back again and again. We’ve enjoyed all that!
‘In between all the upsets we have had! And there’ve been a few of those too!’
Elizabeth never wavered from the conviction of the value of the project, especially for those who stayed ‘long enough to have lasting effect.’
She never changed from that opinion.
Since those first pioneering days, hundreds, if not thousands of young people have benefitted from residential stays at East Shallowford Farm.
Rosemary died in 2010 and Elizabeth in 2013, but the work of The Shallowford Trust continues.
This year we celebrate 50 years with a series of events and activities.
Link to the website: 50 Years in 50 Stories – Shallowford Farm