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Last autumn, Toby Wiggins hired
a 1972 VW campervan to travel around Wessex making portraits
of people who worked the land. Wessex is a loosely defined geographical
region in southwest Britain. Toby uses it to refer to the rural
areas of Avon, Devon, Dorset, Hampshire, Somerset and Wiltshire.
Toby grew up in Dorset and spent
time working on local farms. Here he reveals how members of the
agricultural community are coping with the rapid changes to their
way of life.
'The campervan was ideal for negotiating the narrow country lanes.
After several days' fighting with the gear stick, I was purring
along at a top speed of 55mph.
Travelling into the New Forest,
up an unmade track through mature trees, I reached the home of
the verderer (whose job is to protect the New Forest's traditional
landscape and its commoning practices). I was greeted by several
wandering ponies, a couple of bounding dogs and Dionis MacNair,
the verderer, at her porch. She took me into her kitchen, illuminated
by tiny windows incised into deep cob walls, lined with rosettes.
We sat at a table in front of a window, the side of her face
lit up beautifully, her hair a striking silver. Dionis talked
with authority about the New Forest she loved, practical in her
analysis of its present needs and future preservation. I left
with apples and pears.
From the New Forest I took in the Isle of Purbeck, moved through
the Blackmore Vale and up over the Salisbury Plain, down on to
the Somerset Levels and west over the Quantocks into Devon. The
people I visited showed me great generosity. I often received
gifts of fruit, in particular apples, field mushrooms and on
occasion a roast dinner, and a glass or three of cider in Somerset.
Judy Knight, a farmer, gave me some of her own Dexter beef, which
I cooked up with wild mushrooms in the back of the van. Delicious!
Of the people I met, many were
indigenous to the area in which they lived, some had migrated
across Wessex and there were some newcomers. All had a strong
sense of place and a passion for their work'.
Toby Wiggins
April 2007
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