RORY JOINS MICHAEL GOVE AND HRH THE PRINCE OF WALES FOR HISTORIC TOUR OF AN UPLAND FARM

On Monday 26 March Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and The Border, welcomed HRH The Prince of Wales and Michael Gove, the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, to Low Beckside Farm, Newton Rigg College’s own working farm. This educational facility safeguards the future of uplands farming by equipping young people with the skills essential to its preservation.

The guests toured both the College’s state-of-the-art Sheep Husbandry Centre and its hill farm, meeting both staff and students along the way. The Prince and Mr Gove were particularly impressed by the technological skills and innovations demonstrated by Newton Rigg students

Michael Gove said that “seeing work undertaken in the countryside first-hand is an immensely important part of my job and today is a great opportunity to join the Prince of Wales to visit charity and community led projects in Cumbria and speak to those people who are driving them.

Commenting on the visit Rory said “It was a very great privilege to welcome our two distinguished guests to Low Beckside Farm, to showcase the school and Cumbrian farming more generally. On the day on which the Lake District finally received recognition from UNESCO it was fitting that HRH The Prince of Wales and Michael Gove visited our college, which in so many ways is the custodian of the Cumbrian countryside. Upland farms are fantastically important, both for our countryside and for our rural communities and this was a truly historic occasion”.