Farm of the Week: Sheep farmer on a mission to bring back woollen blankets to solve heating bills crisis

Farmer and farm shop owner Richard Haigh has been involved with a major slice of meat industry history in his 77 years but a recent acquisition of land and property close to his home at New Hall Farm in Lower Hopton has brought him an even older historical focus and a realisation that going back a little in time could be a way forward in the light of present struggles.

By Chris Berry

Published 3rd Dec 2022, 06:00 BST

He’s currently engaged in harvesting fodder beet that is grown to feed his herd of around 400 cattle on 28 acres to the other side of the River Calder at Holme Bank Mills, which was once one of a number of mills owned by James Walker Textiles in the heyday of West Yorkshire’s Heavy Woollen industry.

Only the chimney and the bottom two storeys remain from those days when blanket manufacture was massive in the Calder Valley and when the original James Walker started out with two handlooms in a weaver’s cottage in 1810.