As part of our 50th Anniversary celebrations, Robert Musgrave MBE, Vice-Chair of The Shallowford Trust, has been gathering personal reflections from people who have been an integral part of the remarkable Shallowford story through the past five decades. So, pull on your wellies, we’re going on a journey down memory lane! A new story will be uploaded every Thursday throughout 2026.
3. Mark Butler
“It’s a Long Way from Battersea”
Mark Butler, Estate Warden, Duchy of Cornwall remembers Shallowford
I came to East Shallowford over New Year 1979, when I was 9 years old, being the youngest in a group of boys. It was with Providence House (youth club) and we came down in the old blue van. We walked to Widecombe in the freezing snow. I think I cried all the way.
I remember the boys – My mates Spencer,Leigh, Rickie, Darren, and Trevor – who the pony threw in the field, and his brother Tracy, who rode another pony that just sat down and rolled over. Mark Baxter was there who lived two floors above me behind the youth club in London. There were others, most of whose names are still in the visitor book at the farm. Mine isn’t. In truth I might not have been able to write in those days.
We went to Bellever, and got freezing cold in the river, then I lost my too big welly boots in the mud near the farm gate and had to go home in my socks. Although I knew we were on Dartmoor, I had no idea where it really was. We went to church, with a striking view of the hills. We all had tasks to do: washing up, peeling potatoes, mucking out the pigs. The first time I ever saw a pig was on the farm, and as an adult I have reared my own pigs. Miss Braund would tell us Bible stories, give us homework to do on the dining room table, and serve us hot orange juice by the great fireplace. Ever since I have had my own house, I always made sure there was a fireplace. There was a table tennis table in the barn, and also stacks of bedding straw, which we were told not to climb on – but of course we did.
I think it cost a fiver to send me down here for the week, and my Mum said it was the best fiver she’d spent to get rid of me for a week! When I got back home the first thing Mum did was put me in the bath.
I lived in Irving House, Livingstone Estate, close to Clapham Junction station and from our flat we could see the trains all day, every day, and heard them all the time. It was all a bit wild west living on that estate. I grew up close to drug dealing, police raids, and all sorts of goings on. When we were 15, 16, lads were getting into trouble, going to Feltham young offenders, in and out of Battersea Police Station. But I didn’t want that and started going to Providence House Youth Club, costing 2p collected in an old marmalade jar.. I wanted to get away and lead a normal life and think if I’d stayed there, I would have ended up like so many of the other lads; so as soon as I was old enough, I joined the military, and by 18 was in the Royal Marines and never looked back.
I spent many years in Plymouth, and lots of my training was on Dartmoor and learned to love the countryside, and once I was able to own a house, I made sure it was not in the city. I now live at Belstone on Dartmoor, in an old cottage, with great views across the moors. It’s a long way from Battersea, and I feel so privileged that a boy from the city can have this amazing outdoor job as an estate warden for the Duchy of Cornwall.
My interest in nature was stimulated all those years ago. In Battersea we would fish for eels at low tide on the Thames, or swim in the Queensmere pond on Wimbledon Common, or follow the deer at Richmond Park. Family holidays were in Cornwall, so from an early age I was introduced to the countryside.
Then one day before Covid, we heard on the news an item about an emerald brooch found in a chest of drawers that was being prepared for auction – linking back to Miss Braund and the farm. I couldn’t even remember the farm’s name, but worked out where it was on the map, and my then wife and I drove to Shallowford, and reconnected after all those years.
2. Debbie Dowman
“A Good Addiction”
Debbie Dowman first came to Shallowford on a school trip as a teenager, back in 1978 – and four generations of her family have continued the tradition.
I first came to East Shallowford Farm in November 1978 from Battersea County School and it was very cold. I didn’t know Providence House in London at the time, or the farm’s connection. . I had just had my thirteenth birthday and remember my dad dropping me off at school, because my mum was in hospital having given birth to my brother. My first memories of Shallowford – it was amazing. We were all so excited, it was so different to Battersea.
I remember in the barn they had a makeshift badminton court although the house was like it is now, apart from the horrible metal bunk beds upstairs. We used to call them prison beds. We loved the amazing open fire – I’d never seen anything like it. And I still haven’t even after all these years. We helped with household chores and one day we made a lemon meringue pie, I had no idea that meringue was made out of egg white, and that if you just keep whisking, it forms – it so fascinated me. Mind you, I have never made one since!
We would be driven to the village; but I did take a walk on my own one day, without permission. I wanted to go home, as some of the children hadn’t been too nice to me and I had enough. I walked to Widecombe where there was a phone box – it cost 2 pence a call. I phoned my mum and dad but there was no answer. Then I went to the shop and bought a big selection box, and sat on the wall outside. Suddenly, Miss Braund pulled up and said, Debbie, get in the car now. On my first visit, I wanted to go home, but ever since, I’ve wanted to come back.
I never returned on a school trip but in 1992 I returned with my family. By this time, I was involved with Providence House, and joined in with a families’ weekend. It was wonderful. I was really happy to be back – it was still the same, but now I was bringing my own kids. And now I am addicted, it is the best addiction you can have. Shallowford does something to you, you feel very much like it’s part of me, a family, it feels like home. It actually makes me feel closer to God for some reason, perhaps it’s the beauty of Dartmoor. It’s like you see his hand, his hand print there. I mean it’s beautiful.
Four generations of my family have been here. My mum and my dad, sisters and my brother, in fact my dad used to drive a group in the minibus here. My husband Shane, and our two children, and now each of their children, grandchildren and partners from all both sides of the family. My nephew Antony lives on the farm. I’ve been here as a punter, as a beneficiary. I’ve been here as a helper in the kitchen and with youth groups.
I think the changes to the farm have been so well done. Mind you, I do miss the chickens and the geese strolling around; and seeing somebody randomly walking past leading a cow. Each evening they would bring the horses in. I loved seeing that. I remember some of the outings we went on. We climbed Haytor, visited the Ten Commandments and visited a quarry, which was so muddy my friend’s boot came off. We had so many laughs. One thing is that each time I come down here, it’s different, so though you’re at the same place, the experience is always different.
If I had only one thing to describe Shallowford, I have just one word: Amazing. Oh, and it’s an addiction. It’s a happy addiction. One thing I’d like to end with: I think it’s really lovely that my daughter, Anita, is a Trustee at Shallowford, and who would have thought that back in the day!
1. Elizabeth Braund
Fifty years ago this day, Elizabeth Braund and Rosemary Bird had already spent their first Christmas and New Year on Dartmoor.
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 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.