RXW37

July 07, 2022

Our second Rural Week at Bicton of 2022 in early June didn’t quite live up to the sunshine in March, but we had a great time and as always it was lovely to be back in Devon.

Team HighGround consisted of Anna, Tim our Rural Employment Manager and Pete our Welfare Support and we were joined by serving personnel and veterans from the Army and the Royal Marines.

Everyone arrived safely on the Sunday evening and Monday’s Archery icebreaker was as competitive as ever – the jury is still out on the final winners..!

Chris Shepherd who runs the Timetable had organised another excellent visit to Pete and Di Wastenage at Tidwell Barton to learn about getting into Agriculture and this was followed by a visit to Clinton Devon Estates to meet John Wilding and learn about Forestry and tree management.

Last presentation of Day One was a visit to Rodney Hall’s farm to learn about Vegetable and Crop Production.

Another packed day on Tuesday with visits to an RSPB reserve and then Haldon Forest Park to discuss the different roles of the Ranger with Toby, Josh and Gregg.

Back to Bicton for Arboriculture with Matt and Kirsty from Hi-Line in the Park followed by Construction Plant and Engineering Technology with Andy Daw.

The bandwagon rolled on to Wednesday with the first visit of the day to meet Lord Clinton’s Wildlife Ranger Tom then on to National Trust Killeton to meet Karl the Head Gardener for a fascinating tour of the gardens.

Back to Bicton for a quick lunch and to meet Alex and Louise from TH White who were visiting us to find out more about what we do and how we can help each other before heading to Forest School with The Outdoors Group then Plant Operations practical with the extensive range of JCB machinery owned by the College.

Last full day was Thursday with visits to Debbie Kingsley South Yeo Farm West, Terry at Woodbury Park to learn about Greenkeeping then back to Bicton for Zoe Elliott’s presentation about horseracing and breeding Careers in Racing and to complete our overview of the land-based sector we were delighted to welcome one of our Development Board members Robert Honan from Ascott House and Gardens for his presentation about Estate Management.

Huge thanks to Jamie for his excellent Self-Employment session on Friday morning and to Jim and Jeff our evening speakers and everyone at Bicton for looking after us so well.

Last word goes to the RMP veteran whose wife saw us on Countryfile last November and suggested he contact HighGround:

The week was well run, friendly, relevant and informative. It revitalised my desire to push myself and look at the final third of my working life and do something I enjoy instead of just chasing the money.

Wish this had been available when I left in 2009.

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