Tony Young owns and runs Upper Bastleford Farm on the outskirts of Rosemarket, working alongside his wife Marilyn until her death in September 2023, aged 84 years.
Tony’s family have been part of the farming community in Pembrokeshire for generations. His great grandfather started working the land in 1805 at St Lawrence Parish Mathry, North Pembrokeshire.
Tony’s paternal grandfather owned his own farm, whereas his maternal grandfather and family were tenant farmers.
Tony’s father, Harrold was born in 1894. He joined the army and served in the First World War, the family recalling him as a sergeant in the Pembrokeshire Yeomanry seeing action in Salonica before being invalided out of the army towards the end of the war. He then became a tenant farmer at Stackpole Quay during the 1920s. He later joined the Home Guard, serving throughout the Second World War. In 1944, Harrold purchased Upper Bastleford Farm, when Tony was a young boy. Tony eventually took the farm on himself. He married Marilyn in Neyland in 1966 and the family has remained on the farm ever since.
Today, Upper Bastleford Farm comprises 90 acres of land, farming mostly organic potatoes and beef. During the winter months, they also take in TACK sheep – where other farmers essentially pay a rent for allowing their sheep to graze on their land.
Tony & Marilyn Young, June 2022
Life on the Farm
Tony has kindly agreed to share some photos depicting farming life through the decades and we display some of these below:
Tony Young, c1970
Farm Worker (date unknown)
Harrold Young and Tony Young c1950s
Tony Young (left) and David Barrah
Enjoying Coronation Day on The Beacon, June 1953
Tony Young (right) on a Side Rake, 1955
Tony Young (left), with friend (date unknown)
On the farm: 1970s
Harold Young
Harold Young; front row, second from right, pictured in Salonica (date unknown)
Prisoners of War on the Farm
During the Second World War, Tony recalls, two German prisoners of war were sent by the War dept to work on the farm. Recalling their names as Hans Schmidt and Kurt Barandes, they worked alongside the family and did their jobs very well. After the war, and before they left the farm, Mr Schmidt presented the family with a replica of a horse & cart that he had carved with just a small penknife.
Wooden carving presented to the Young family at the end of WW2
Photocard of Hans Schmidt, German Prisoner of War
Reverse of photocard sent by Hans Schmidt at Christmas 1947