Adam and his loyal land army

BBC Countryfile presenter Adam Henson is Britain’s best-known farmer. But when lockdown shut his Cotswold Farm Park, glamour was off the table: he went straight back to mucking out sheds and feeding bulls. With the farm park now reopen, he talks to Katie Jarvis

- Katie Jarvis

Lady Edith went into labour during lockdown so her visitors, by necessity, were limited. Such a shame. Under normal circumstances, untold hordes would have flocked to see the offspring of such an aristocratic beauty. Edith, for her part, was sanguine about the whole affair: fair of complexion and warmly maternal, she’s known for her calmness of personality.

Also for her large ears and ability to forage.

“She’s a British Lop – lovely, docile pigs, which originate from Cornwall,” Adam Henson explains. “I bought her from Lady Carnarvon at Highclere.” (In case you’ve been in Micronesia for the past decade: the stately home near Newbury where Downton Abbey is filmed.) Lops fell out of favour when more productive, modern pigs came in. But Lady Carnarvon knows her stuff. She bought hers for an area of rough woodland she wanted clearing – ideal work for a rare-breed forager.

And an ideal addition to Adam’s Cotswold Farm Park in Guiting Power, home to more than 50 breeds of farm animal; enjoyed (normally) by a whopping 160,000 visitors each year.

“I’d sold Highclere some sheep – Romneys – which I delivered to them last year. While I was there, I had a look at their pigs and thought, ‘I’d love one of those!’ My very first pig was a British Lop – Sally – that my dad gave me when I was eight.”

So he bought Edith, who was already in an interesting condition.