As one wonderful old Cotswold farmer said to me as he rushed past with an armful of Union flag bunting: “It has to be done Adam – coronations are rarer than hen’s teeth.”
Quite right, and I couldn’t help thinking the new King would have appreciated the turn of phrase. After all, Charles III is particularly proud of his Highgrove flock of Welsummer and Maran hens, which peck and cluck alongside a brood of locally bred Burford browns. Although I doubt that HM has much time to check the hen house in person at the moment.
It’s remarkable to think that it’s been 86 years – almost to the day – since the last British King was crowned in Westminster Abbey. It means there are a rapidly diminishing number of people alive with any clear memories of the day in 1937 when George VI took part in that time-honoured ceremony.
Like his grandson, the old King was a naval man and a countryman at heart; as the young Prince Albert, he had learnt about the botany and birdlife of Norfolk as he walked through bracken and fir trees on the Sandringham Estate with his schoolmaster, Walter Jones. But while Albert grew up to be a wildfowler and a crack shot, Charles’ interests are in species conservation and the practicalities of farming.
A love of rural life runs through the royal veins, from George III (known affectionately as ‘farmer’ George) to the late Queen Elizabeth II with her expert knowledge of the equine world, an understanding of the working countryside and a devotion to Britain’s native breeds, such as her herds of Ayrshire and Jersey cattle. Her son has inherited many of those passions and can further claim to be a practical farmer.
If anyone doubts that he actually gets his hands dirty, I can vouch for his willingness to get stuck in to the most unglamorous of chores. I’ve seen him at work in the fields near his Gloucestershire home, billhook in one hand and a hedging axe in the other. Hedgelaying is almost an obsession with the monarch and his enthusiasm for the rural skill has rubbed off on others.
Even the man who taught the King how to successfully lay a hedge, John Savings, has become something of a local celebrity in the Cotswolds. A five-times winner at the national championships, John has schooled numerous novices over the years and is in demand as a public speaker. Not so long ago, I saw him on TV explaining that the King doesn’t just lay hedges when the sun shines: “He’s out there when it’s pouring with rain, too."
I got a sense of that royal dedication to the fundamentals of farm life when, as Prince of Wales, Charles paid an official visit to the Cotswold Farm Park in 2020. Despite the chill wind and the sudden showers, he took his time inspecting the livestock paddocks, was particularly interested in our Suffolk Punch mare Victoria, and looked every inch the seasoned stockman when he came nose-to-snout with one of our Old Spots sows and found himself surrounded by her litter of piglets.
In farming circles, it really feels like we have a kindred spirit as head of state. Meanwhile, as Coronation Day draws near, the bunting is out in force here in the Cotswolds, thanks in large part to the villagers’ efforts with the old red, white and blue.
