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My grandparents used to live here, in Saltersley Hall Farm. The oldest part of the house was built with the same stone as Mobberley Church, it is almost certainly more than 500 years old. You have to go a long way to see another stone house of a similar age. |
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Here my mother keeps some Highland cattle and some pigs. This bull is a big softie. |
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She doesn't milk the cows, the calves do that for her. |
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Highland cattle come in a variety of coat colours, from pale beige to black but just one style: shaggy. |
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Here I'm sharing some grapes with a sow. They are very easy to get along with as long as you remember they are equals. When I was watching the pigs a hiker came by with a dog. “Don't worry, he'll not chase the piglets, I can assure you.” We didn't need any assurance, we knew if the dog was stupid enough to try he wouldn't regret it for very long, a sow is quite capable of breaking a dog's neck in a second. But if you treat them right they are as gentle as rabbits. I was feeding this sow grapes held in my lips. |
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Berkshire piglets. |
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Berkshire pigs have mostly white skin but dense black bristles with the exception of the face and 'socks', as this curious little piglet shows. |
I spent a lot of my time as a boy on this farm exploring and learning for myself.
One of the special features about the farm were a couple of small rolling hills which were made of sand. My grandfather sold off the sand and the two hilly fields were carried away in lorries over a number of years until the excavations reached the water-table. Then pumps were used to extract sand-slurry and a lake was created. After nature had taken over the sandy hole was turned into a beautiful lake. My grandfather named it Rossmere after his distant cousin Ross. It is now owned by an uncle and leased out to the Prince Albert fishing club of Macclesfield. In addition to the fish it is home for several species of water birds.