Church Farm has been farmed by the Read family for 90 years. It first came into the family when in 1914 Monty Read became the tenant of the Pembroke Estate. Three years later, in 1917, he became one of the first farmers in the area to buy his farm which he bid for at an auction in the Bear Hotel, Devizes.
The farm has always been a mixed farm with a closed dairy herd rearing dairy replacements and beef calves. There is a also a large area of arable land growing wheat, barley and oil seed rape and now after a gap of fifty years, in 2003, sheep made a comeback in the form of a flock of pedigree Wiltshire Horns. These graze over 200 acres of natural chalk downland on the southern escarpment of the Marlborough Downs together with young cattle in summer. At the present time the farm runs at over 1000 acres and has 200 Holstein Friesian dairy cows and 200 young cattle and is run by Monty Read’s grandson, Bryan Read with the help of his two sons James and Sam.
Church Farm has been farmed by the Read family for 90 years. It first came into the family when in 1914 Monty Read became the tenant of the Pembroke Estate. Three years later, in 1917, he became one of the first farmers in the area to buy his farm which he bid for at an auction in the Bear Hotel, Devizes.