Farm History

Andrew and Jenni are the forth generation of the Guy family to farm at Julians.

Andrew’s father, John Andrew Vanstone Guy, started his working life working in a Tailors shop in Bideford, called Dunn and Co. John was the youngest of 4 children, the eldest, Frank, farmed at North Tamerton. George helped the family on their farms and wasn’t married. Mary Kathleen married Henry Ley and farmed at Sutcombe.

John took over the farm when he get married, back in 1954. He married Evelyn Powell, who was an evacuee from London who came to the farm as a child.

Before the Guy family took on the farm, it belonged to Mark Rolle, of the Stevenstone Estate, of Torrington. Plaques on the building depict MR and a date.

It is also mentioned in various history books, such as the Black Torrington Hundreds and the Doomsday book of 1086AD, as a Doomsday Manor, named PUDEFORDA.

Back in the 1960's and 1970’s, there was 6 farm workers here. In those days, jobs were more reliant on manual labour, than mechanical like it is today.

Back before mechanisation and tractors, there would have been between 4 and 6 heavy horses on the farm, to pull things like the ploughs and trailers.

The field names and boundaries have remained the same over the 4 Guy generations.