Foreman of the Bench

About the Book

Foreman of the the Bench is approximately half about the author's lifetime of farming experiences and half his thirty years as a Justice of the Peace. He writes of his wartime years as a schoolboy and member of the Home Guard. For many years he played a prominent part in the Young Farmers Club movement, which he believes prepared him for his appointment as a magistrate. The author is a well known farmer and pig judge and has a wide experience of livestock marketing. He is a council member of the Three Counties Agricultural Society, all of which is discussed in the book. He explains how sentences are determined in court and has some critical comments to make on the proliferation of regulations and trends in rural life and the administration of justice.

About the Author

The author is a member of a family partnership farming some 260 acres in the Cotswold Vale. Now semi-retired he has had a lifetime's experience of meat marketing, the farm's latest venture being the selling beef and pork through farmers' markets. He was for 30 years an active magistrate on a rural bench and is a well known breeder and judge of pigs. As a relaxation, being keenly interested in nature conservation he does voluntary maintenance work on the Pembrokeshire Islands and is co-founder of the Friends of Skokholm and Skomer. Hobbies are bird photography and the study of agricultural and military history.

Other books of his that have been published are :

• Foreman of the Fields - A century of the Cotswold Vale.
• Three into One - The history of the Three Counties Agricultural Society.
• Skokholm the Islanders - The story of his work on Skokholm Island.
• Islands - Lovely Islands - Travels to and working on five small islands.