As Farms for City Children marks its 50th anniversary, Sue Griffin looks back on the school trip that left a lasting mark on her life. Her week at Nethercott Farm in the 1990s introduced her to the natural world in a new way, sparked a lifelong curiosity for the outdoors and gave her memories of Michael Morpurgo’s storytelling that have stayed with her ever since.
Discovering something new
I first came across Farms for City Children when I was at primary school. I grew up in Plymouth and, although I had a very happy childhood, money was tight. No skiing trips or music lessons; none of those opportunities that some children just get to have.
So, when I got the chance to go away with my class to Nethercott House, it felt both exciting and scary.
I must have been about 11 or 12 and it was the first time I had ever been away from home. My mum actually kept the letters I wrote home while I was there and she recently sent me copies. Reading them back brought all the excitement of that week rushing back.
Seeing a bigger world
What I remember most is just how much that trip opened my eyes.
The farm felt completely different from the concrete city that I knew. We were outdoors, exploring, helping and getting stuck into things in a way that felt exciting and new.
Apparently, judging by the letters, some of the most memorable parts were milking the cows and mucking out the dairy.
That still makes me laugh, but I can believe it. I remember loving the hands-on side of it all. There was something about being outdoors, interacting with the animals and doing something physical that felt completely new to me.
People sometimes hear that you are from Devon and imagine an idyllic childhood by the sea, playing in fields and beaches and the feel of a holiday postcard. But that was not my experience – I grew up in the centre of Plymouth and so Nethercott felt like another world.
In Plymouth, the birds are mostly pigeons, gulls and starlings, and in my letters home I write about how out in the countryside we were able to see bats and a buzzard. Suddenly there were different colours, different sounds and all these things I had simply not paid attention to before.
Michael and the magic of storytelling
One of the strongest memories I have from that trip is of Michael Morpurgo being there.
I remember him taking us out for a walk and encouraging us to notice everything. To listen to the birds, think about the animals, look closely at the rocks and really pay attention to the world around us.
I can still picture us wading through a stream that, at the time, felt incredibly deep.
Then in the evening we came back and sat around the fireplace while he read through Friend or Foe each night. It felt magical. At the end, we all got a signed copy of his book, which still brings back fond memories whenever I look at it on the bookshelf.
What stayed with me was not only the excitement of meeting a writer. It was the way he made the world around us feel full of wonder. He made you want to look more closely, listen more carefully and imagine more.
Horizons widened
Looking back, I think that trip really widened my horizons.
I do not mean that in a dramatic way, as though everything changed overnight. But the world suddenly seemed bigger, yet also more accessible.
Later, I went on to university with the support of a bursary, completing my undergraduate degree at Bath and then my PhD at Cambridge. I am now a Vice President specialising in cancer research at a pharmaceutical company. I would never claim that one school trip determined the course of my life. But I do believe that there are certain moments that stay with us – experiences that expand our sense of what’s possible and quietly help to shape the way we see the world.
This week at Nethercott was one of those moments for me. Sometimes that is what these experiences do. They do not set out a single path for you, but they help you imagine that there are paths you could take. These accumulated pivotal experiences in a life can help to take you on a journey that you had never thought possible.
A curiosity that stayed
That connection with nature has stayed with me ever since.
Over the years, we have travelled all over the world to experience nature in its most wild forms. My husband and I have trekked through the Virunga Mountains to see mountain gorillas, visited the Amazon rainforest (twice), planted trees to help conservation efforts in Indonesia and travelled to experience the wildlife of Antarctica.
What makes me smile is that I still find myself thinking back to Nethercott in unexpected moments. For example, my husband and I were recently in the Okavango Delta, Botswana, where we were trying to find a dung beetle in large piles of elephant dung; suddenly I found myself thinking about the farm and about how fascinated I had been by all those things as a child. There was something very funny and very lovely about that. That sense of curiosity had stayed with me all those years later.
Why it still matters
For me, Farms for City Children is about giving children access to something they might not otherwise experience. It is about showing them a world beyond the one they know day to day. It is about nature, but it is also about confidence, curiosity, independence and possibility.
Not every child who visits a farm will go on to travel the world or work in a profession they had never imagined for themselves. But they may leave with a different sense of what is out there, and of what might be possible for them.
That matters enormously. Because sometimes all it takes is one experience, one story, or one week away from home to shift something in a child. To help them see more and imagine more.
I think that is what Nethercott did for me. And it is why I recently updated my will to ensure at some point I will be able to leave a legacy for Farms for City Children.
Looking back
When I think about that trip to Nethercott now, what comes back most strongly is the feeling of discovery.
It was the excitement of being away from home for the first time. The joy of doing something completely different. The wonder of nature. And the magic of sitting by the fire, with a mug of cocoa, listening to stories.
It gave me memories that have lasted a lifetime.
More than that, it helped me see that the world was bigger, richer and more interesting than I had realised before.
That is an extraordinary gift to give a child.
A week on the farm offers benefits that can be felt throughout the lives of children and young people. Whether you donate, fundraise for us or spread the word, your support will enable future generations to thrive on our farms.
