When my son Brian saw yesterday's photo of our lane he reminded me of the time during the terrible Foot & Mouth Disease epidemic of 2001.
I have looked out this old photo...condition pretty poor but it just shows the same lane with old carpets lying across the road.
We used to drench them with disinfectant every day so that every car & vehicle driving down the lane had its wheels disinfected. Our gate farm gate was shut at all times & every farm wagon calling with cattle feed had their own spray gun which they used before they entered the farmyard.
Looking back we were absolutely obsessed with getting contaminated with this dreadful & virilent disease to the extent we were frightened of shaking anyone's hand & even to staying in all the time.
Over ten million cattle were destroyed & the sight of burning carcasses will never be forgotten. We were lucky & our herd was saved but many almost went mad , some even committing suicide they were so upset.
A dreadful time for British farming.
This photo looks a bit odd but have just realised I should have cropped the top where the table is showing....I had to photo this picture from a proper photograph.
Wow - I remember when that was in the news. It must have been so horrible being at the center of it all. Hopefully nothing like this will happen again..
Oh that's brought tears to my eyes and we're city folk with no farming connections, but it was such a horrible time seeing animals slaughtered and people's livelihoods ruined, let alone being barred from walking through much of the countryside.
Was that really 13 years ago? Seems like yesterday. As a townie we weren't affected but remember how moved I was when they interviewed farmers and they got chocked up talking about it.
@digitalrn@boxplayer@debbie3108@kwind@jpvona@jantan
Must admit I was quite surprised how the hedges have grown up since then,,,,different people in the houses who like their hedges higher plus it was winter here, this is taken from the other end of the lane than mine yesterday. The road at the end us the A 586 into Blackpool.
I remember this well pat I was in the army at the time based at Albemarle Baracks very near to the suspected first case. I missed it as I was deployed in kosavo but many of my friends and colleagues were drafted in across Cumbria.
On a sadder note my family lost a collection of very rare bread sheep that my uncle had inherited and been looking after for as long as he remembers he got compensation but could not replenish the bloodline it was heartbreaking:-(
Wow Pat, I remember that and remembering feeling so upset when seeing it on TV.. such a terrible thing to happen..,. lets hope it never strikes again..
@markjohnston no I agree the compensation cost the country a great deal but never compensated the worry & heartache caused by losing animals you knew & loved. Specially bad was the loss of the 'heafted' sheep in Cumbria & other areas...so long to rear those special sheep that know their own boundaries.
@julzmaioro yes I'm sure farmers all over the world felt the pain...hope it never happens again but it is possible. It taught us we have to be able to trace every animal.
Oh yes dreadful - my godmother in Kendal said the whole of The Lakes was smoking with burning carcasses and just terrible times. We missed most of it here though we weren't allowed to go to an alligator farm in Florida because we were British. They had a few cows and we tried to explain we hadn't been anywhere near cattle & had been in Florida for 2 weeks but they wouldn't have us. Could easily vaccinate as well but then you have cattle that test positive.
I remember it well, although like Judith Greenwood we were in Florida aboard our boat with our son and his wife. We used a local swimming pool and when people discovered we were from UK, some locals left the pool immediately!
As beef and sheep farmers I can certainly remember the horror of this time. Our area wasn't too bad but driving past other farms with the smoke above will haunt us for a long time.
@ellida oh dear how rude but we were all turned a little mad at the time...I remember not selling raffle tickets because of the risk.......to be British was a crime!
What a sad memory. I remember hearing about that on the news. Farmers all over the world have lots of traumas to deal with. Our main problem is drought.
It must have been a terrible time. I remember seeing it on the news and can hardly believe it was 13 years ago! Your lane has grown wonderfully in the meantime!
It was a dreadful time; I have met so many farmers who gave up or diversified as best they could. One of my friends at Pilates is a farmer and they lost everything, it was her pigs and chicks I posted a while back.
It was an awful time wasn't it Mum! It was such a pain having to spray the car wheels and dip your footwear in disinfectant every time we ventured out. You could smell disinfectant in the air wherever you went.
I don't know if it's the case over there, but here in the States we still get asked if we traveled to the UK during that time, and if so, we can't donate blood.
June 4th, 2014
Leave a Comment
Sign up for a free account or Sign in to post a comment.
Must admit I was quite surprised how the hedges have grown up since then,,,,different people in the houses who like their hedges higher plus it was winter here, this is taken from the other end of the lane than mine yesterday. The road at the end us the A 586 into Blackpool.
On a sadder note my family lost a collection of very rare bread sheep that my uncle had inherited and been looking after for as long as he remembers he got compensation but could not replenish the bloodline it was heartbreaking:-(