During the 1960s and 1970s most farmers were going headlong down the route of intensive agriculture. But Joe Henson, who has died aged 82, stood out from the crowd. His passionate championing of rare breeds – initially as a lone voice, but later at the head of a thriving national movement – helped to save some famous varieties of farm animals that might otherwise have vanished.
For more than four decades, his farm near Cheltenham, was a haven for unusual breeds of pigs, sheep, goats, cattle, horses, ponies and poultry that helped educate generations of visiting families and schoolchildren about the importance of maintaining diversity among farm animals.
He constantly promoted the importance of rare breeds in print and on television, appearing on farming and countryside programmes from the 1970s onwards. He was a regular guest on Countryfile, the BBC series devoted to rural and environmental issues, which is now presented by his son Adam. The show’s long-serving presenter John Craven described Joe as “himself a rare breed, a true gentleman who believed passionately in the animals and breeds he preserved for the nation”.
Joe was born in Chelsea, south-west London. His father, Leslie, was a well-known comic actor and director who with Basil Dean co-founded Ensa, the armed forces’ Entertainments National Service Association. Joe’s mother, Harriet (née Collins), was an actor, using the stage name Billie Dell. His younger brother, Nicky, followed their parents into acting, but Joe chose a very different profession, joking that he had run away from the theatre to become a farmer.
He did, however, inherit from his father comic timing and a gift for performance. One of his favourite stories was that of Cotswold shepherds who were traditionally buried with a hank of wool in their hand, so that St Peter would know they had been tending their flocks, and could not always get to church. Following this ancient custom, Joe was buried in a coffin made of British wool, holding a hank of wool from the best Cotswold ewe in his own flock.
Joe’s love of farming stemmed from his schooldays, when he would spend the holidays helping out on a farm at Northwood in Middlesex (now west London). In 1951, aged 19, he began training to be a farmer at Cirencester Agricultural College (now the Royal Agricultural University). Soon afterwards, he met Gillian Richards, whom he married in 1957, and in 1961 they took on the tenancy of Bemborough Farm in Gloucestershire, with his old schoolfriend John Neave.
Joe started to acquire animals from breeds that were in decline, as they fell out of fashion in favour of mainstream types that were more productive and easier to farm intensively. He then decided to show these animals to the public. Despite some scepticism from local people who could not see the potential of a farm as a tourist attraction, he and Gillian opened Cotswold Farm Park to visitors in 1971.
In 1973 Joe and a small group of farmers and animal geneticists founded the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, to preserve animals such as Gloucester cattle (from whose milk we get double gloucester cheese) and the then obscure – but now widely admired – Gloucester Old Spot pig. But they were too late to save some declining breeds, including the Lincolnshire Curly Coat pigs, the last of which disappeared in the late 1970s.
Others, such as Longhorn and Gloucester cattle, which were down to only a few herds, were brought back from the brink, and today their meat and dairy products are much in demand from restaurants, gastropubs and discerning consumers. Despite setbacks – including the foot and mouth disease outbreak in 2001 that threatened both the survival of the animals and the commercial future of the park – the enterprise continues to thrive, attracting more than 100,000 visitors a year.
Joe’s three daughters and his son all followed in his footsteps, forging careers in the farming and environmental fields. Adam continues to run the Cotswold Farm Park with the pedigree flocks and herds established by Joe in the 1970s.
In recognition of his pioneering work, Joe was named NFU Farming Champion in the 2010 Farmers Weekly awards, and the following year was made MBE for services to rare breeds conservation.
He is survived by Gillian, Nicky, his children – Libby, Louise, Rebecca and Adam – and seven grandchildren. Another grandchild, Ben, predeceased him.
• Joseph Leslie Henson, farmer and conservationist, born 16 October 1932; died 5 October 2015
