Gerry Brooke takes a look at a new book which traces the life and times of a South Gloucestershire farm and its families

Howard Davis, who farmed at Little Stoke in South Gloucestershire until 1957, was passionate about natural history.

His son, 71 year old Martin Davis, who grew up on the farm but now lives in Bristol, says that ornithology was his particular interest.

“He was self taught, reading books on birds over and over again, until he was able to recognise every bird he saw” says Martin, who has recently bought out a book about both his father and the farm’s history.

“He also learned how to identify them from their bird song, a more difficult task.

That was in the 1930s, and although his father, Edward, still owned the farm, Howard was in charge of running it.

Despite his busy, seven days a week farming life he was able to keep meticulous records of all the wildlife he saw in the area between 1931 and 1947.

“But there was no place for sentimentality in his approach to wildlife” says Martin.

“Howard carried a shotgun, and would use it if he had too.

“He did, however, champion nature – he was “green” before the term had entered the vocabulary.”

In those days the Berkeley Hunt would meet up at various farms in the locality.

“When he took over the farm in 1931, my father wanted to end hunting on its fields” explained Martin.

“He took some stick from the local press.. but he won and the hunt chased its foxes elsewhere.

“Howard made his friendships with others who had like minded interests in natural history – some of them were good photographers.

“My mother then urged him to join the Bristol Naturalists’ Society.

“He did, and after serving time on various committees, was made its president in 1951.”

After joining the RSPB and working on various other committees Howard was soon on first name terms with the leading ornithologists of the day.

Despite this he remained, at heart, says his son, a modest man who didn’t seek the limelight.

“But there was one achievement that meant more to him than all the others” says Martin.

“And that was his involvement with the creation of the Severn Wildfowl Trust at Slimbridge.”

The village, just of the A38, was then something of a quiet backwater.

Beyond a rough, grassy track was a high embankment which protected the farmland from spring time flooding.

And beyond that stretched the Dumbles, a large, flat grassy area that extended to the banks of the River Severn.

A remote place, far from human activity, it provided a safe winter refuge for many types of migratory geese and ducks.

“When he wasn’t busy on the farm” says Martin, “my father spent many hours lying on the bank watching the geese through his old telescope.”

He decided to write to fellow naturalist Peter Scott, who had run a wildfowl reserve in Norfolk before the war, and invite him down to see the geese.

Peter, who had visited the area before, was keen but didn’t think that he would be able to find the time.

But he did and in December 1945 and the two naturalists met up, along with two of Peter Scott’s friends, at a swing bridge over the Sharpness-Gloucester canal.

“They spent two days, staying overnight at Little Stoke Farm, watching the geese” says Martin.

Amongst a flock of some 2,000 birds were many White-fronted Geese – they were quite common – but it was Howard, not Peter, who first spotted a slightly smaller bird with an unusual thin, golden ring around its eyes.

“It was a rare, Lesser White-fronted Goose, only the second ever to have been recorded in Britain – the first had been in Northumberland in 1886” explained Martin. They watched for half an hour. Martin calls it a “defining moment.”

From that time on Peter Scott became convinced that the bird was not quite as rare as had been supposed. He was, of course, proved right. It just had a habit of hiding amongst the more common geese.

“A lasting friendship ensued” says Martin, “and my father became a founder member of the Trust, serving on its Council from the start and later becoming a trustee.”

Scott was just one of many eminent ornithologists – they included naturalist Lord Allenbrooke, the wartime Chief of Imperial Staff – who came to stay at Little Stoke farm over the next decade.

Martin recalls a time when a Trust meeting at Slimbridge was interrupted by a shotgun blast.

Members quickly adjourned and set off to find out who was taking pot shots at the local wildfowl.

“One was the actor and ornithologist James Robertson Justice” recalls Martin.

“ He was a big man with a beard and, when he chose to use it, a thundering voice.

“ He could put the fear of God into anyone, even more so in the twilight gloom.

“It was he who chose the path that crossed with that of the luckless poacher.

“Quite what exchange took place is lost in the shadows of history, but it was felt that the poacher was unlikely to search for his future meals in and around the Dumbles ever again.”

Howard Davis died in 1974, aged 76, having loyally served the Wildfowl Trust, and many other nature conservation bodies, for some 27 years.

Sir Peter Scott, praising Howard’s life in the world of nature conservation, gave the address at his funeral in Almondsbury church.

The remainder of Martin Davis’s evocative book traces the history of Little Stoke farm, and the people who lived in it, from the 14th century until its final neglect and sad demolition in the 1960s.

As well as the history of the area, now mostly covered by the Bradley Stoke new town, there are chapters on livestock, the weather, the harvest and the farm in wartime.

The publication is also filled with over 150 evocative photos, many from the 1940s and 1950s but others, discovered in an old Ovaltine tin, from between the wars.

But as the author points out, this is not a formal history but a mixture of memories and impressions.

Intimately written, it gives the reader a valuable insight into what it was like to grow up on a typical farm in the Severn Vale all those years ago.

It looks and feels like a different age.

l The Farmer and the Goose with the Golden Eyes by Martin Davis is published by Redcliffe Press at £12.95.

The book is also available from Bradley Stoke library or from Martin Davis himself. Ring: 0117 9683419 for more details.

Proceeds from the book will be shared by various charities, including ones devoted to wildlife.