A memorial service was held to celebrate the life of Ken Trewin On Thursday 7th April at St Mary’s Church. At the service his granddaughter made the following tribute:

Thank you for joining us today to celebrate the life of Ken, Dad, Grampa and Great-Grampa.

Grampa lived at Higher Manaton, South Hill, for most of his life; however, he was born in December 1920 at Stonaford Farm North Hill, attending the local primary school and Sunday school at Trevadlock. At that time, the Trewin family were tenant farmers of Stonaford, Glubhole, East Berrio, Trewartha and Tolcarne all part of the Trebartha Estate.

In 1930, his parents Charles and Maggie, along with his older sisters Emily and Dora moved to Higher Manaton after Grampa’s father and Uncle Jack purchased the farm – starting Grampa’s life-long attachment to the farm.  From about 1932 to 1935 he attended Hoe Grammar school in Plymouth – however, this school was destroyed during World War II.

As a young man, when the extended family got together (mainly the Vennings on his mother’s side), the four young boy cousins were known as “the gang of 4” – comprising Edward Venning, Lawson Turpie, John Venning and Grampa – sadly, Grampa was the last man standing.

Ken’s life was centred around farming from the start; his first purchase of a tractor following extreme frustration at having to work with heavy horses in the field, was very much to the disgust of his father, who said that the tractor would sink into the ground before getting any work done.  However, from that first purchase, Grampa went on to indulge his enjoyment of ploughing – entering and winning many competitions.

Grampa first met Nan (Annie Mitchell) in the early 1940s at a farm sale at Bocaddon, thanks to an introduction from their cousins – and from there, the courtship began.

During the war he was a member of the Home Guard, under the leadership of Fred Eggins. While in the Home Guard he was a dispatch rider on some occasions he would combine this with visiting Nan at Lantundle Farm, Duloe.  Because of petrol rationing, he usually visited Nan on bicycle  take the most direct way by cycling from Manaton to Rilla Mill, up to Minions, across to Doublebois, Taphouse and out to Duloe – not the easiest of routes!

During these excursions, he had a few lucky escapes. Due to the blackout, he had to ride his BSA bike with a very dim light or none at all; on one occasion he rode straight into a flock of sheep and on another, a group of moorland ponies!!  His favourite story was when he and Walter Dennis (who ended up being his best man) were visiting Nan – Grampa turned a corner at speed, but soon realised that Walter wasn’t following – it turned out that Walter had missed the corner and gone straight on; through the hedge!

Grampa has always been very competitive, as demonstrated through sport at school, with him particularly enjoying sprinting and he even played football at Coads Green before the war.

During the war, whilst in the Home Guard he would compete in athletics against the army and he won several events.  Asked by the army how he trained to keep fit, his response was, typically; “hard work!”

Five months before their November wedding, Grampa was fencing at Tremollett Farm and was hit by recoiling barbed wire which cut his face. His Auntie Emily Burnaford applied iodine to his wound, however, it turns out that Grampa was allergic to iodine and his reaction was so severe that he couldn’t shave for four months and wasn’t well enough to visit Nan..

He eventually married Nance (Annie) Mitchell in November 1943 at Lanreath Church and following the service, they travelled by train to Northway, Tewkesbury for their honeymoon. They returned to live at Higher Manaton and his parents moved to Tudor House at Coads Green.

When Nan’s parents came to visit them at Higher Manaton, Granny Mitchell was shocked by the very basic conditions her daughter was living in – a house with no bathroom, an outside toilet and all water coming from a well using a hand pump. Not to mention the muddy farm lane – it was in such a poor state that even the baker would leave his deliveries at the entrance gate!

Consequently, Grampa was an excellent shot with his .22 rifle and shotgun which were used to control vermin on the farm, including rabbits, foxes and rooks.  However, unlike his sons and grandchildren, he never had time or the inclination to shoot for pleasure.

As young newlyweds, Grampa and Nan socialised regularly with their South Hill neighbours, Ray and Mary Hicks – meeting for picnics in the fields between the farms – they were even known to walk up to Kit Hill!  Brian was born in 1945 and David my dad in 1948 the family complete.

Grampa always proudly said that he started farming with just £50 to his name – and with the help of some forward thinking bank managers!  When his Uncle Jack died in 1947, Grampa bought his share of Higher Manaton, thanks to a very generous National Provincial bank manager called Mr Libby.  By 1955 he was able to purchase his father’s half of the farm, along with another bank loan, making Nan an equal partner in the business.

Over the years, Grampa diversified!

Breeding South Devon Cattle was a very important part of his farming life – and he enjoyed the competition of shows – even winning at the Royal Show; a proud moment! From competing, he went on to judging at several shows, including the Isle of Man show.

He also won supreme Champion twice at the South Devon Sale at Exeter in 1972 and 1977 – and Higher Manaton cattle have been exported to Canada, North America, Brazil and New Zealand.  My parents have even visited a few of the offspring over the years!

He also did a great deal of contracting, baling and combining for farmers in South Hill and neighbouring parishes. His favourite combine harvester was the MF 400, which he bought in 1963.

One year, during harvest, the MF 400 needed a spare part and unable to locate a spare part locally, Grampa and Uncle Brian had to drive to Manchester to collect one, in his 6-cylinder Vauxhall. They left after tea, picked up the spare part at midnight, travelled back, fitted the new part and then continued combining until the next evening – pretty hairy considering there were no motorways at that time! Apparently, not one car passed them on the entire journey!!

A state of the art grain drying plant was installed in the early 1960s and he dried 100s of tons of barley and wheat for neighbours and local corn merchants.

Early on, the milk produced at Higher Manaton was taken to Kelly Bray railway station. Originally, milking was by hand, but then an Alfa-Laval milking machine was purchased early in the 1950’s. This developed over the following decades to a full dairy herd, diversifying into Friesians as well as the beloved South Devons!

During the war, he also supplied the local schools with home-grown vegetables, along with other farmers establishing a petrol group the pump at Bray Shop with Nan in charge of collecting payments each month.

To improve the farmable land at Higher Manaton in the 1960s, a lot of tree felling and drainage took place; another opportunity. The felled trees were cut into firewood and loaded into the back of the Land Rover – for £1.00 per load.

Most Tuesdays during the 1960’s Grampa would attend Launceston Market, with his Land Rover and trailer to buy weaners – they fattened between 200- 300 pigs each year.  In time for Christmas, over 100 turkeys and even more large capon chicken were fattened; Grampa was always in charge of the plucking machine and delivering the poultry to local butchers – including a Mr Dingle who had premises on Blackfriars Lane in the Barbican in Plymouth.

He also bred longwool sheep.   Higher Manaton’s longwool sheep were a cross between Devon Longwools and South Devon Longwools; this was before the two breeds amalgamated into one.

As well as farming, Grampa took great pride in his public life. For example, he was Chairman of the South Devon Herd Book Society in 1973/74. More locally, Grampa spent many hours on council business.  Having been a Parish Councillor for 68 years (formally recognised by Cornwall Council in 2014), he was a mine of information on local issues and how they have developed over the years.

Grampa was also involved at District and County level Government in the 1970/80s, being the Chairman of the Eastern Division of the County Smallholdings Committee, the Land Drainage Committee, Wages Committee, the Chairman of the Health Committee while serving on the Liskeard Rural District Council – and then school governor for South Hill and Upton Cross primary schools – and Callington Comprehensive school.

Grampa was also a full member of the local NFU – holding the office of Chairman of Callington NFU – during which time he and Nan attended a grand dinner at the Savoy Hotel, London, where Prime Minister Harold Macmillan was the guest speaker. He also attended several NFU meetings in  Truro – and predictably, he would try to cover this 49-mile journey in less than an hour, before the days of dual-carriageways in Cornwall!

An achievement that Grampa was particularly proud of was being one of the founding members of Duchy College at Stoke Climsland, along with John Pendray, Roger Philip, Seth Davey and Vernon Daniel, regularly attending Advisory Board meeting throughout the 1980s and 1990s. This is now a thriving college, part of the Cornwall College Group, yet still fiercely proud of its agricultural heritage.

In recognition of his years of public work, Grampa was invited to attend one of the Queen’s Garden Parties at Buckingham Palace – Nan got a new hat for that one!

With all this public work going on, neither Higher Manaton or Tremollett suffered as both were ably managed by the remaining business partners, Nan my parents and Uncle Brian and Auntie Vivian.  Without their support, Grampa would not have had the freedom to contribute to society in this way.

Going back to his competitiveness, Grampa and Uncle Tom Mitchell were inspecting cattle at the farm when Grampa jumped a 5-bar wooden gate, rather than open it. He would approach it like a high jumper put his hand on the top rail and vault over. Uncle Tom, not to be outdone, attempted the jump, but caught his foot on the top rail and landed flat on the ground! Those of you who knew Uncle Tom can imagine what he might have said to that!

And, when my Dad was about 10 he had a new bike for Christmas – Grampa decided to ride the bike by sitting on the handle-bars, facing the saddle and cycling backwards – unsurprisingly, he didn’t fall off!!

Grampa and Nan didn’t often go on holiday, but in 1975, they travelled to Alberta, Canada, along with Uncle Tom and Auntie Pete Mitchell to see some of their exported cattle – and were surprised to see some of them with very short ears and tails; they discovered that this was due to frostbite!!

They stayed at the ranch of Charlie Pearman, who thought that he would play a trick on Grampa by suggesting he rode the horse they used for rounding up the cattle. Unbeknown to Grampa, this horse had a nasty habit of reversing into the fir trees to push off its rider. However, Grampa stuck his heels into the horse and soon had it under control – a nod to his early days of bareback horse-riding on Bodmin Moor whilst living at Stonaford Farm in North Hill.

Since “retiring” from farming, Grampa’s vegetable garden became his price and joy; he was intent on producing top quality vegetables for competing at local shows (especially South Hill Show) every year, always coming away with a clutch of prizes!! Any surplus vegetables he generously gave to neighbours, friends and the postman.

In retirement, he also discovered short mat bowling at Coads Green, over the years, becoming one of their best players, never short on advice for other players!

He even joined in with personal projects.  When Damon and I bought a garden flat in London, Grampa and Mum came up for a few days by train, took delivery of a load of turf and laid it in our back garden. He also tried Italian risotto for the first (and last) time – he was 87!!

Attending the annual Royal Cornwall Show was a must for Grampa and even after Nan died, Grampa would go with Jack Davy – Grampa driving and Jack making sure he was belted in securely!

Grampa was devoted to Nan throughout their marriage; when Nan had a hip replacement in Exeter Hospital in the 1990s, Grampa visited every day. When she became terminally ill in 2003, I clearly remember Grampa gently taking over her daily tasks without fuss – cooking, washing and ironing – and when she became too ill to remain at home, he would be with her daily at Derriford.

But, just after Nan died, a new generation was born; Grampa’s great—grandchildren. Lydia was born in 2004, Amelie in 2006 and then Magnus and Harrison in 2011 – they certainly brought entertainment to his life!!

Grampa was a truly innovative and hard-working man – diversifying a basic war-time farm to create a successful and award-winning mixed farm of beef, dairy, sheep and pigs, whilst with the support of his hard-working family, he contributed significantly to public life – whatever he did, he did with his whole heart.          From bare back pony riding to fast cars.