Platinum Jubilee: Farmers Weekly celebrates Queen’s reign

When the Queen was born in 1926, Stanley Baldwin was prime minister, a general strike saw workers across the nation down tools, and the inventor John Logie Baird demonstrated the world’s first TV.

It wasn’t until eight years later that the first issue of Farmers Weekly rolled off the presses.

Billed as the “newspaper for British agriculture”, it covered a wide range of news across the farming spectrum – and to this day that’s included the royal family’s involvement in the sector.

See also: Farmers Weekly Podcast Episode 66: Prince Charles and Great Yorkshire Show

Over the nearly 100 years she’s been alive – and during the 70 years she’s been on the throne – the Queen has taken an interest in the countryside and those who live and work there.

Here’s a selection of photos of Her Majesty through the decades as a countrywoman and interacting with rural communities. Many of these appeared in the pages of FW at the time.

1. Farming in her blood, FW Coronation Souvenir Issue

1953: 15 May issue

“However urgent the demands of the land, the solemn ceremony at Westminster where Elizabeth II is soon to be crowned engages the thought of the whole nation,” so FW proclaimed in the Coronation Souvenir Issue.

“Farming is in her blood,” the editorial column continued. “During her reign, we can be sure that the work of her house will be carried on and that the Royal patronage will be extended to the great industry of the land as generously as it always has been since the days of ‘Varmer George’.

“She has been brought up largely in a country setting and has all the countrywoman’s accomplishments.”

Meanwhile, farming families across the land prepared for the occasion, organising events – from  tea parties and firework displays to communal meals in village halls and processions.

2. With Young Farmers

1949: 20 May issue

The then-Princess Elizabeth presented a prize at the Federation of Young Farmers’ Clubs’ annual meeting in London.

It was the first time the gathering had been attended by a member of the royal family.

3. Receiving a bouquet

1952: 15 February issue

FW published this photo (taken three years before) of four-year-old Ruth Elizabeth Lyttle presenting flowers to a very special visitor on behalf of the Young Farmers’ Clubs of Ulster.

4. FW Coronation Souvenir Issue front cover

1953: 15 May issue

The front cover of FW sported this bucolic scene. This issue would have set you back the princely sum of eight pence.

5. The land girls

1953: 15 May issue

Princess Elizabeth, as she was at the time this picture was taken, with “land girls”.

As more “senior” readers will know, there had been more than 80,000 people in the Women’s Land Army at its peak.

They had made a huge contribution to Britain’s food production during the Second World War.

Their scope of work was vast – from dairy-related duties to jobs as rat catchers, as the pests proved a serious threat to supplies of food and animal fodder.

6. Advertisers mark the occasion

1953: 15 May issue

Among the companies taking out adverts in the Coronation Souvenir Issue to mark the occasion  was Fisons, which wished Her Majesty “long life and happiness”.

A few pages away, Ferguson Tractors highlighted its role in supporting the “Queen’s Yeomen” – the landowners, farmers and smallholders of Britain.

“Through the famous Ferguson System, their labour and land are rendered more productive, their future more secure… keeping in good heart the land over which our new Queen rules,” the machinery company said.

7. All the Queen’s acres

1977: 4 February issue

The Queen and Prince Philip at Sandringham. At the time, the Sandringham Estate covered more than 20,000 acres, including 2,000 acres of woodland and 2,000 acres of country park.

There were 10 tenanted farms, totalling about 14,000 acres. FW took a detailed look at the estate’s farming system, suggesting the approach was a broadly simple one – crop the best land and stock the rest.

The farms’ manager Roger Mutimer said: “My motto is do the cropping right and take care of the fertility.”

Arable cropping revolved around barley at one of the two in-hand farms, Appleton, and wheat at Wolferton, the other farm.

In 1975, the spring and winter barley showed gross margins of £91/acre and £108/acre respectively.

8. Price comparisons

1953: 15 May issue

Farmers always enjoy comparing contemporary prices with those from former eras and the 1953 issue looked at some of the prices at the start of the reign of Queen Victoria 100 years earlier. It even tried to estimate levels 400 years before at the time of “Good Queen Bess”.

“It is salutary,” so an article commented, “to reflect that future generations will probably look at our prices with the same amused interest that we can glance back at the state of affairs in Victorian times, never mind the age of the first Elizabethans.”

9. Royal Highland Show

1984 and 2009

Having visited in her earlier years, the Queen has attended the Royal Highland Show three times since her coronation.

The first was in 1960 for the official opening of the Ingliston site, now called the Royal Highland Centre; the second was in 1984 for its 25th anniversary; with her most recent visit in 2009.

These two shots show Her Majesty meeting exhibitors and admiring the stock in the cattle classes in 1984 and 2009.

10. The Queen and Prince Philip at Sandringham

1977: 4 February issue

In a detailed article in Farmers Weekly, the agent at Sandringham, Julian Lloyd, explained the strong commercial focus.

“This is a private estate, no public money is spent here. My ‘bank’ is the Privy Purse and I have to use it like a bank. If I want to borrow £5,000 to put up, say, a new building, the Keeper of the Privy Purse wants to know why I want the money and how I am going to pay it back,” he said.

11. Royal Smithfield Show 

1988

Many FW readers will remember their annual trip to London for the Royal Smithfield Show. The Queen was among the visitors in 1988.

12. Golden Jubilee tribute

2002: 31 May issue

Farmers contributed to a chain of 600 beacons on 3 June.

“The aim is to allow farmers to make a unique contribution to the celebrations by providing a significant number of beacons that will be lit up and down the country,” said Lord Plumb, then-president of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, which was chosen as one of Her Majesty’s nominated charities.

13. South of England Show

2002: 14 June issue

FW’s front cover showed the Queen – who is patron of the South of England Agricultural Society – at the Sussex event on 7 June. Her trip marked a return after a previous visit in 1984.

14. Welshpool livestock market

2010

 Farmer Gwyn Price met the Queen in Welshpool Livestock Market in April 2010.

15. Official birthday photo

2022

A new portrait showing the Queen just ahead of her 96th birthday with Fell ponies Bybeck Nightingale (left) and Bybeck Katie.

It was released by the Royal Windsor Horse Show, which took place in the grounds of Windsor Castle in May.

The 2022 Show celebrated the Platinum Jubilee with “A Gallop through History” – a special event featuring more than 500 horses and 1,000 performers.