It s been a hard, but exciting road South Cumbrian farmer John Atkinson and his partner Maria Benjamin have trod since we featured them in Farmer three years ago. JOHN Atkinson, born and bred in the Lake District, and Maria Benjamin, who came for work and stayed, are knowledgeable and interesting, passionate and sometimes controversial. John Atkinson’s family has moved just three miles in 600 years, farming in the Crake valley south of Coniston in the Lake District National Park. John, 60, is the sixth generation at Nibthwaite Grange Farm. The family had always been tenants until his parents bought the farm, prompting John to take over from his dad Bill when he was 21. “He had to sell all his livestock to pay for it and still says that was the worst day of his life,” says John, who is joined on the farm most days by his ‘retired’ dad, who is in his 80s.
Did you know that at the Lake District Wildlife Park we have 87 different species and more than 320 individual animals? That is quite a lot of mouths to feed, water buckets to fill and enclosures to muck out! The different types of animals that make up these numbers include exotic mammals, birds, and reptiles, that are found in the wild all over the world. However, a small proportion our animals are domestic livestock, some are native to the UK and some are very special breeds. Our Bagot Goats are one of these breeds as they are listed on the Rare Breed Survival Trust watchlist. This means our herd plays an important part in their future conservation. They are thought to be the oldest breed in the UK. Their name originates from Sir John Bagot, who is thought to have kept the first herd of this hardy animal.