Background
Thomas Farrall was born at Bassenthwaite, Cumberland in 1837. After a basic education he began life as an agricultural servant, working under his father for Sir Henry Vane, of Armathwaite Hall.
president author Cumbrian teacher
Thomas Farrall was born at Bassenthwaite, Cumberland in 1837. After a basic education he began life as an agricultural servant, working under his father for Sir Henry Vane, of Armathwaite Hall.
Thomas Farrall was born at Bassenthwaite, Cumberland in 1837. After a basic education he began life as an agricultural servant, working under his father for Sir Henry Vane, of Armathwaite Hall. He later enrolled at the Durham Training College to train as a teacher.
He graduated with honours in 1858 and commenced his teaching career at the tiny village school at Isel, where he stayed for two years.
Lavendale was his next appointment, where he remained for a further five years. He taught for seven years at Wetheral and three at Dovenby before accepting the head position from the newly formed Aspatria and Brayton School Board in 1874.
He also taught part-time at the Aspatria Agricultural College.
He began writing on agricultural matters for both the Carlisle Journal and the Carlisle Examiner, and later the West Cumberland Times and a wide variety of other Cumberland publications. Although a great deal of his writings appeared anonymously under the pseudonyms, ‘Rusticus’, ‘Agricola’, ‘Rover’, and ‘The Mud Student’. From the Royal Highland and Agricultural Society of Scotland he obtained prizes for compositions, amongst which appeared.
The West Highland Breed of Cattle - Fourth series Volume
VIII 1876 The Ayrshire Breed of Cattle - Fourth series Volume VIII 1876 The Galloway Breed of Cattle The Comparative Advantages of Autumn and Spring Cultivation The Agriculture of Arran and Bute The Agriculture of Edinburgh and Linlithgow County - Fourth Series Volume
IX 1877 The Dairies of Edinburgh Some of these were printed in the Society"s Transactions. Shortly before the Society precluded non-Scots from their competitions, they made him an honorary award of a Gold Medal for a work entitled ‘The Agriculture of the Island of Orkney’.
He also received prizes from the Royal Agricultural Society of England.
He also received several awards from the Royal Agricultural Society of Ireland. In 1877, Farrall helped the Ayrshire Cattle Society to compile the Ayrshire Herd Book, which contained a portrait of the famous Ayrshire cow, ‘Colly Hills’, considered at the time the finest specimen of its breed. He received the original painting from the Duchess of Athlone, and later donated the copyright to the Ayrshire Cattle Society.
In 1878, he wrote a series of long essays on the subject of Modern Farming in West Cumberland, where after visiting neighbouring farms he wrote about their various techniques and methods.
The following farms appeared. Shatton Hall Farm Gatesgarth Crosscannonby Hall Warthole Guards Farm Eaglesfield and Southwaite Farms Preston Howe Farm Aigle Gill Farm Farrall also wrote many poems and tales in the Cumbrian dialect, which were first published in the West Cumberland Times and the Whitehaven News.
He was the author of the famous Betty Wilson’s Cummerland Teals, a volume published in excess of thirty editions. Other contributions regularly appeared in many of the local newspapers, under a variety of noms de plume, including, ‘Bachelor Joe’, ‘Recollections of Aunt Sarah’, ‘Tom o’ t’ Nulk’, and ‘Wise Wiff’.
His contemporaries considered him a ‘Keen observer of men and things’.
In the course of his life he accumulated an inexhaustible stock of anecdotes and when added to his remarkable memory, made him a popular character at social events. He was President of the Aspatria RUFC and a patron of the Aspatria Cycling Club. He died on 19 August 1894 and his remains lie in Aspatria churchyard.