Woolsery

In a period of rapid change in rural England, farmer and writer James Rebanks explores the lives of rural workers in and around three English villages.

What is special about these communities? What has changed in living memory and what might they lose or gain in the next generation? How does it feel to live through the transformation of a culture?

Un-nostalgic and unpatronising, these are the uncensored voices of rural England - by turns thoughtful and funny, defiant and melancholy. As forces including land ownership, government policy, climate change, globalisation, rewilding and food production monopolies alter rural England forever, James explores the impact of these changes on the collective lives and cultures of communities and offers a portrait of their inner lives.

We hear from foresters and farmers, a deer stalker and a regenerative market gardener, a bellringer, a gamekeeper and a retired vicar. Men and women from 23 to 90 years old.

In the third and final episode, we hear from the people of Woolfardisworthy (Woolsery) in North Devon. In living memory this was a community of small subsistence farmers, a place concerned almost entirely with agriculture. Now the area around this expanded village is home to some of the largest dairy farming operations in the country, but also a kaleidoscope of approaches to “restorative” farming. In a world in which farmers are told to “get big or get out” what does the future hold for those - big and small - who have stayed in?

Produced by Michael Umney
Executive Producer: Susan Marling
Mixed by Mike Wooley
Original Music by Toby Hay
Special thanks to Heather Millman and Emma Clarke
Michael Umney was supported by a Churchill Fellowship, awarded in 2025
A Just Radio production for BBC Radio 4.