Masters Of Engineering

Winter is no time to sit back, says Tim Field, as farmers turn their attention to maintenance tasks, ensuring the local lanes run as smoothly as the watercourses

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A GREAT deal of countryside maintenance is in the hands of Britain’s farmers, who caretake more than two-thirds of our magnificent landmass. Mending fences, hanging gates, installing water troughs, fixing pumps, grading tracks and clearing ditches; without a doubt, farming is best suited to those with an aptitude for engineering. And considering the hectic schedule of the growing season, much of this falls to the short days of winter.

Some farmers make better engineers than others and nothing is more telling than the cowpats and destruction across the village green following a stampede of escapee steers. Multiple generations of baler twine knitting together odds and sods of Rylock wire, rotting stakes and gnarled hedgerow branches are no match for frisky young stock when grass growth has slowed up and the winter pasture gets a bit thin. Bodgeit engineering offers varying effectiveness and comes with regional distinctiveness. My aunt, quite rightly, takes great pride in her take on a “Hampshire gate”: bailer-twine hinges, suspended sheep hurdle and wire latch hooped over a fence post.