Farming Stalwarts: Jack Creasy, still ploughing at 85

Jack Creasy might be 85, but he’s still a dab hand with a plough.

Last year he turned over 150 acres, using a 300hp-plus tractor and a seven-furrow plough – a far cry from when he started out in farming 70-odd years ago.

“It was all very different then – when I started work, there might have been 1000 people doing the work 10 do now,” says Jack, a well-known and popular figure in rural Suffolk.

Jack grew up in the area, loved the countryside and, despite his headmaster suggesting he should join the navy, pursued a career in agriculture – starting work with his uncle on Smithies Farm at Stanningfield as a 14-year-old.

He got involved with the cereals, cows, pigs and horses, but one of his passions and greatest skills was tractor driving. He says he was “hooked” from the moment the first tractor arrived on the place.

The tractors themselves, however, weren’t so comfortable in those days. “You’d get frozen. The old seats were so uncomfortable you went home with an imprint on you.”

In the years since then, Jack’s seen huge changes in farming – from the depression of the 1930s when “whole fields grew nothing and nobody had any money” and the War era when “it was all about trying to produce more food” to today when he’s still active, interested and helps on the farm during harvest.

The place is contract managed nowadays by a neighbour, Richard Duchesne. He describes Jack as “unique – an exceptional guy with exceptional knowledge” and says he “will embrace changes better than a 40-year-old”.

Throughout all those decades, Jack kept a diary and his notes came in handy for a talk he gave last weekend to the Village Society to 50-plus people.

He remembers clearly how physically hard the work used to be – hand-hoeing sugar beet and manhandling 2cwt sacks, for example. “Now there’s no heavy lifting – it’s done on pallets with a forklift.”

According to friends and relatives, Jack is an extremely modest character who hides his light under a bushel. His cousin Mary Goddard (who owns Smithies Farm with her husband John) speaks of the “keen and intelligent interest” he’s taken in all agricultural developments.

“When I first took over from my father-in-law in 1976, Jack knew every inch of the land,” says John. “He knew when to go on it and when to keep off it – he also instinctively understood the weather.”

Jack’s fantastic achievements have been recognised many times – including at last year’s Suffolk Show, where he was given a certificate recognising his 70 years at Smithies Farm.

He’s a talented gardener, is active in the Methodist church and since, taking his first holiday abroad when he was 60, has become a fan of travelling with his wife, Dorothy (both born within two or three miles of their current home in Stanningfield they were married in 1945).

Destinations for their travels have included Morocco, Sri Lanka, Switzerland and Cyprus. “We’re not entirely land lovers – we have been up in the sky,” he laughs. They also have a son and daughter, five grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren.

“If you’re content in your working life, it makes everything else easy,” he says. “Farming isn’t repetitive – it’s not like working in a factory.

“I love the outdoor life. If I had my time again, I’d do it all the same,” says Jack. “Even after 70 years, the seasons haven’t lost any of their magic.”

Farming Stalwarts is a monthly series celebrating men and women who have devoted their working lives to farming and the countryside. To read more Farming Stalwarts click here.