Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

LIVING OFF THE LAND 155 Show Business A passion for farming has led to decades of glory in the show ring for Gladys Mann and her host of prize- winning cattle, as James Fuller discovered in this interview, first published in Our Time in July 2005 ather used to go down to the river and hand-milk the cows, and then he would deliver the milk on his way home with his milk churn and measure,' says 63-year-old Gladys Mann. Gladys' father Reginald (Reggie) Mann was a familiar sight around the streets of Buckden 40 years ago, tending to his cattle herd and making sure the villagers were sufficiently supplied with milk."He took milk around Buckden for over 30 years and never had a day off," she said. Gladys' family has lived in the Cambridgeshire village since an ancestor, Daniel Mann, a licensed victualler and groomsman, arrived there from Glemsford, in Suffolk, in the 1740s.The Manns have made the Taylors Lane area their home since purchasing 50 acres of land there in the early 1800s. Gladys was born at Hardwick House in 1942, moved to Hardonian Farm in 1964 and then to her current home, at the top of Taylors Lane, in 1983. She has two cousins who also farm in Buckden. An only child, Gladys was schooled at Cedar House, in St Neots, and says her father wasn't convinced she would enjoy the farming life."I'd been to private school and dad didn't think I would take to it. He didn't think his daughter would do the job."He was wrong though and Gladys revelled in it, helping her father out whenever she could. "After being to private school, the milk round was where I really learned to count," she laughs, "because if I made any mistakes with the change I would have to jump off the cart and run back." It wasn't only farming that the young Gladys enjoyed. From the time the family bought their first cattle they began showing them."We started off with four Jerseys in 1955. when I was 13. We had Shorthorns as well, so altogether we had about 12 animals when we first started. By the time we packed up we had nearly 100. We showed first in 1955 and within a couple of years we were doing loads of shows. We did all the county shows; Cambs, Beds, Northants, Peterborough (before it became the East of England), Hunts and many others. We also did the London Dairy Show. It was absolutely fantastic. "For six weeks in June and July we were incredibly busy. We would be in the hayfields, baling hay, carting hay; then milking the cows and going to the shows."We used to be up early when showing. I remember my first time at the Royal Norfolk Show, it was 4.45 a.m. and I was up and about and I bumped into the television presenter Gordon Moseley. He asked me if I'd help him open the programme that day. I did and I was on the TV but I never got to see it myself. I never have seen that show. "It was a long day and by the end of it I was so exhausted I felt ill."The hard work and long days were worth it as the Manns were incredibly successful. "We won 100 prizes every year for nearly 20 years between 1957 and 1977. We had to win because it cost so much to travel to these places. There wasn't much prize money but what there was covered our travelling." One of the family's best animals had an unpromising start in life."We bought this bull, Horton Jolly Panther, from the Shand Kydd family in 1958. He hadn't been looked after very well at all and was in a bit of a state but my father saw something in him he liked. He was six months old and cost £15. When we got him home we took him for a long walk across the fields to pull his hocks right and began feeding him up."Within two years the animal had developed fantastically and carried off the top prize at the 1960 Royal Show at Cambridge. Five years later, he showed a handsome return on the initial investment when he was sold to the Ministry of Agriculture at Shinfield, Reading, for 600 guineas. One of Gladys' most successful shows came just after the death of her father, in April 1977. But it was an event she nearly didn't attend."I kept saying 'I can't do the East of England' and people just kept saying 'of course you can'."I went to the show and got three firsts with three animals and a second in the Group of Three. Having won with all three animals individually I never did understand why we were second in the group, but there you go. We got champion and reserve champion of the Jersey Breed as well as champion female and reserve champion female. Then, on the Wednesday, we won supreme champion all breeds."It's little wonder that Gladys lists Peterborough's East of England Showground alongside the Royal Norfolk as her two favourite showgrounds. But, when her mother, Joyce, suffered a heart attack in the early '80s, and following the death of her father, Gladys' cattle showing days were coming to an end. It's a hard job to keep at the top," she says. "When mother had a heart attack we decided to pack up the milking and have some beef cattle instead. We bought a Simmental and decided we would love to show her though; so we entered her for the East of England. She won first prize in the Simmental cow class. Then we went back with her - it was either the next year or the year after that - and she won again." Around the time Gladys was attending her last cattle shows, she rekindled a love of riding and began a new business."I used to love riding ponies when I was 12 or 13; 1 used to ride the milk round pony. I did everything with that pony, carted hay, did the milk round and I rode him. We got a Shetland cross in about 1984 and someone said could they come and ride it. The business really just grew from there and I F