On 31 May some 60 liverymen and guests congregated in the Master’s home county of Gloucestershire for the annual Summer Visit.

We were treated to a private tour of the King’s private 17 acre garden at Highgrove and after lunch to a visit to Duchy Home Farm, courtesy of the Duchy of Cornwall, now under the stewardship of William, the new Prince of Wales.

The group next to the wicker elephants at Highgrove

The gardens were started 40 years ago from simple parkland and have achieved remarkable diversity and harmony over that time. The range of planting and attention to detail were astonishing. The farm visit in the afternoon covered the centre of the 1,250 acre Home Farm business, managed under organic and agro-ecological principles by a dedicated young team led by new tenant Henry-James Gay.

Duchy of Cornwall Agent Mathew Morris explains the philosophy behind Duchy Home Farm

The long term approach of the landlord – granting tenancies of 25 years – was very much appreciated by the Duchy’s tenants, but Mathew Morris, the agent for the Duchy, was realistic about the ability of some tenants to survive the withdrawal of state support. The Ayrshire dairy cattle certainly looked very well, with a good crop of youngstock following on. The day was rounded off nicely with a delicious formal dinner at the hotel, accompanied by a very skilful and amusing magician.

Astonishing magic tricks at the formal dinner

The second day saw the group at FarmEd, an educational centre promoting regenerative and agroecological farming systems near Burford in Oxfordshire. We were shown round the crops, especially the herbal ley system, and compared the soils there with those under a conventional system.

Examining some 40 species of heritage wheat at FarmEd

It was impressive that soil organic matter had increased by 0.5% and the number of bird species observed up from some 40 to over 80 in just 5 years. After lunch in the cafe ‘FarmEat’ – based on produce from the farm – PM Whitlock thanked the Master and his wife Terri for arranging such a stimulating and enjoyable couple of days.

Along with some 600 others, the Master attended the 22nd City Food and Drink Lecture at the Guildhall on 15 May, where the guest of honour was the Princess Royal.

The Lecture is organised by a consortium of food-related Livery Companies – the Bakers, Butchers, Cooks, Distillers, Farmers, Fishmongers, Fruiterers and Poulters – and presided over by the Lord Mayor. Next year’s Chairman will be our own Allan Wilkinson.

Professor Charles Godfray of the Oxford Martin School gave the main speech and echoed some of the sentiments he expressed during our own ‘Question Time’, addressing the issue of a secure, healthy food supply in a crowded world, where 120 million people still go to bed hungry.

We will need to produce at least 30% more food to keep pace with future demand. It was striking that he too (like Henry Dimbleby at our Banquet) singled out obesity as one of the most serious threats ‘which could bankrupt the NHS’.

Read more about the Lecture here: https://cityfooddrinklecture2023.com

The Lansdowne Club in Mayfair was the venue for the second Livery ‘Call My Wine Bluff’ on 9 May.

Some 115 guests enjoyed a fabulous three-course dinner under the splendid barrel-vaulted ceiling of the Club’s Ballroom. Four mystery wines were introduced during the meal by the three wine experts, Jeremy Hill, Andy Cole and David Almeida of Vinotopia wine merchants, each giving an entirely plausible account of grape varieties and origins.

Mary Foster winning the Heads and Tails, conducted by PM Julian Sayers

Of course, two of these were bluffs and the audience were enjoined to make a choice. All great fun.

The auction, amusingly conducted by Chris Mills, and raffle were hotly contested and raised over £8,500 for our Charitable Fund.

James Peck and family enjoying the proceedings

Credit must go to The Mistress Farmer, Terri Davies, who was instrumental in organising proceedings, ably assisted by the Clerk, Assistant Clerk and Senior Warden.

The Master delivering the wooden spoons to the losing table.

Leadership was topic of the day at the Annual Lecture and Dinner, held at Plaisterers’ Hall, London, on April 25. Attracting 175 Liverymen, alumni, sponsors and guests, the dinner provided top quality food as well as food for thought. “Every industry needs great leaders,” said Master, Richard Davies. “We need to encourage and empower a new generation of managers who have the ability to see the world differently.”

Kathryn Bishop CBE was the keynote speaker, sharing her extensive experience of teaching leadership and implementing it across different industries. She explored 200 years of leadership thinking, proving that no single style of leadership is universally appropriate. “There are lots of different ways to lead, and context affects leadership success – some contexts favour leaders who are task-focused, while others favour those who are relationship orientated.”

Leadership styles range from risk-taking heroes to thoughtful, analytical leaders, to sole innovators and empathetic coaches, Catherine explained. Some people are leaders because of their charismatic personality, others because of the way they make you feel; or it could be due to their characteristics and what they choose to do. “You can’t be good at them all – we need to understand that we are all incomplete leaders – we don’t have to be perfect in every circumstance.”

She likened leaders to an orchestra conductor – they are rarely able to play every instrument in the orchestra, but are still creating a coherent and effective team. “The leader also doesn’t have to have all the answers. It’s not what you know – it’s what you do with what you know.”

Kathryn emphasised the importance of identifying weaknesses, both within a skillset and personality profile, and working together with others to plug those gaps. “Distributing leadership is the only way to achieve large scale shifts, it’s about sharing and encouraging leadership, not just having one person at the top.”

It’s also critical to assess each circumstance and decide on the most appropriate leadership style for that context, she added. “Draw on your natural strengths whenever you can, and develop your potential and fragile strengths. Identify your resistant limitations and build a leadership team around you – together you’ll be much stronger than any individual one of us can be.”

The March meeting of Court saw three new Liverymen clothed (see picture), followed by a packed hall for lunch. Our speaker was Kelly Hewson-Fisher, an alumna of the Challenge of Rural Leadership course.

The Master with freshly-clothed Liverymen Gary Mills-Thomas, Sebastian Edwards and John Davie-Thornhill

Kelly spoke with a rare passion about the effect the course had had on her confidence and ambition. The Master’s speech reinforced the importance of our courses in shaping the new generation of industry leaders. He was pleased to take wine with the new members of the Farmers’ Company.

The Elworthy Trophy is an annual Tri-Service (Sea, Army, Air) cadet competition organised and conducted within London District. On the day of the competition later this year, the teams – consisting of eight cadets from London-based cadet units – chosen to represent each service, take part in a round robin of competitive activities in the grounds of the Cadet Training centre at Frimley Park, Camberley.

Court Assistant, Liveryman Anne Courtney, who is the Liaison Officer between the Farmers Company and our affiliate the Middlesex Wing of the Air Cadets, attended a training session for the air cadets at RAF Northolt on Saturday 10 March 2023. After a briefing from Wing Commander Niall Cumming, Flt Lt Chris Pocock walked Anne around the various activities being taught.

Anne reported: “It was a pleasure to attend the training Elworthy Day at RAF Northolt and see our affiliation with the Middlesex Wing making a real difference to the lives of the Air Cadets in the North London area.  The competitions I observed included first aid, rifle shooting, and leadership skills, together with minibus pulling. The cadets were having a great time and so were the officers!”

One hundred WCFA members, guests and partners attended the 2022 WCFA Learning Extension Days – over a day and a half at Loughborough University – for a full programme entitled “Insight & inspirations from the wider world”.

The 29th November started with an action packed speed networking event – which made many hoarse, shouting over others – followed by a drinks reception and dinner with Amie Burke as our after-dinner speaker. At the dinner, Chris Manley was presented the new Farmers’ Company Alumni award – a silver rose bowl donated by Liveryman Peter Bennett.

Peter Bennett (L) presents Chris Manley with the Alumni Award

The 30th November kicked off with keynote speaker Gareth Timmins, former Royal Marine and author of “Becoming the 0.1% – how to build an elite mindset” – who made many think. Three streams then took place during the day, on social media (Tom Martin), the value of mentoring (Nicola Miller) and funnelling great ideas to enhance your business (Sian Gardner & Martin Horton consultants).

The Master and question time panel

A debate on “farming’s image will only be fixed if we all take responsibility for fixing it ourselves” took place with Charlie Ireland of Ceres Rural; Anna Jones, author of “Divide: the relationship crisis between town and country”; Tom Martin, social media influencer; and Jonathan Roberts, director of external affairs for CLA.

Now the Committee starts planning for 2023 – save the dates of 28th and 29th November.