History of Bishops Farm

1940s
Farming was carried out by Mr J W Grant until his death in 1948 .In 1943 a Lancaster bomber crashed in a field on the farm killing five crewmen. A private memorial remains in the field. The 1947 winter gave one of the heaviest snowfalls for many years.

1950s
Messrs W E Grant and J J Grant carried out the farming. Static pea viners were introduced into the farm with the peas being cut by hand hooks and then loaded onto trailers and fed into the viners. Irishmen were employed on the farm to lift potatoes and sugar beet by hand. Cereals were still cut by binders until combines came along. Cows grazed the grassland and were housed in crew yards. The farm size grew by 200 acres.

1960s
A purpose built potato cold store was constructed and a grading line installed. A grain store was built with bin storage and grain elevators. Field sizes increased with the filling in of dykes. Mechanisation advanced. The Government supported food security and invested in crop research.

1970s
Cattle were still kept on the farm, but by the end of the decade most of the grass was ploughed up with wheat, barley and mustard resulting in more intensive cropping. There was construction of a grain store at Twells farm. In 1978 a reservoir was built for irrigatio and we became a member of West Fen Pea Growers with the introduction of mobile pea viners.

1980s
Food production was supported by the Farm and Horticulture Development Scheme with increased drainage and technological advances in crop yields. More crops were sold through marketing groups and supermarkets. In 1983 we formed a group with JW Grant growing and harvesting vining peas. We harvested with a wraparound viner developed in 1983. In 1987 Ian and Stuart Grant started running the farm and began trading as Bishops Farm Partners. Cropping intensified in the 1980s with the introduction of onions and vegetables. A purpose built workshop was built at Stonebridge farm.

1990s
The 1990s saw an increase in grain storage and potato storage at Bishops farm. 1993 saw the start of set aside which saw cereal land taken out of production for which IACS payments were received. This was due to the increasing surplus of grain around the world. Up to 15% of cereal acreage was not cropped for a decade until an environmental scheme was introduced to start and replace un-cropped land. Mechanisation continued to increase with the introduction of a six wheeled pea harvester to replace the four wheeled version.
During the 1990s farming became more beaurocratic and food protocols were introduced to farm assured food standard. The supermarkets developed protocols to be able to supply them - Natures choice and Leaf were introduced. Hedge planting took place in certain areas of the farm. Food became part of the global market with consumers demanding the year round supply of food.

2000s
In 2001 we joined the stewardship scheme which saw cropped land being turned over to environmental purposes. Instead of payments being made for taking land out of production the emphasis was on returning less productive parts of the farm to natural habitats for wildlife. Six meter grass margins were grown around main watercourses as part of the Entry Level Scheme. Onions were no longer grown on the farm, being replaced by more calibrese. In 2002 we decided to increase our pea acreage and run our own group. 2007 was a very wet summer creating food shortages and food security was highlighted for the first time since the 1980s. Towards the end of this decade we saw an increase in grain storage and an increase in the amount of maintenance being carried out on ever more sophisticated machinery.

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