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‘Cinderella’ daughter wins share of £7m estate

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A CINDERELLA farmer’s daughter who says she was left at home ‘with a muck fork’ whilst her teenage sisters went dancing has triumphed in her fight for a fair share of her elderly parents’ £7 million estate.

Eirian Davies, aged 45, was repeatedly assured by her parents, Tegwyn and Mary Davies, now in their 70s, that she would ultimately step into their shoes and take over the family’s ‘golden egg’ – thriving Henllan Farm, Whitland, and its herd of pedigree Holstein cows.

And three Appeal Court judges on Wednesday ruled that a stake in the thriving 182-acre farm was no more than her due for the years of low-paid toil she put in.

The family war had culminated in a “physical altercation” in the milking parlour, during which milk was thrown over Miss Davies by her mother, and she and her father ended up entangled on the floor where she bit her father’s leg.

Miss Davies had testified that she missed out on going to Young Farmers’ Club dances with her two sisters as a teenager because she had to stay at home to deal with her farming chores.

“They always told me that the farm would be left to me. Even on my birthday, when the other girls were having things, they would say – ‘you will have the damn lot one day, it will all be yours’,” she said.

Her father would regularly warn her “not to kill the goose that lays the golden egg” if she complained about her meagre wages, she added.

Until she reached the age of 21, Miss Davies was paid nothing at all for her work on the farm and, after that, there was a period when she was paid just £15-a-day for milking the cows, although sometimes she received more.

She claimed she could have ‘made a better life elsewhere’, but her 75-year-old father and mother, 76, insisted she had earned a fair income during her stints working on the farm, also being provided with free ‘bed and board’ and other benefits.

Describing her as ‘a self-employed herdswoman’, they argued she would have done no better financially had she worked away from the farm.

However, Lord Justice Floyd on Wednesday ruled that measuring Miss Davies’ contribution to the farm was not just ‘an exercise in forensic accounting’ and that her parents should be held to the promises they made to her.

The judge, sitting with Lords Justice Richards and Underhill, said Miss Davies had for years laboured under the impression that she was running the farm in partnership with her parents – however they had never signed the agreement.

In 2009, she was shown a draft will, which left the lion’s share of the farm to her. However, her parents later made changes to their bequests and proposed to place the farm in trust for the benefit of all three sisters equally.

Miss Davies had a ‘passionate interest in pedigree milking cows’ and, by 1989 when she turned 21, she was the only sister left at the farm, ‘her sisters having departed to follow other paths’, the judge said.

And, when she left the farm to work elsewhere for a while, her father begged her to return.

The milking parlour fracas in August 2012 was the final straw that broke the family asunder and her parents launched proceedings to evict Miss Davies from Henllan farmhouse, where she still lives.

However, at an earlier court hearing, Judge Milwyn Jarman QC ruled that Miss Davies had relied on her parents’ promises and thrown herself into working on the farm for low wages. She was thus entitled to a ‘beneficial interest’ in the business.

Dismissing the couple’s appeal against that ruling, Lord Justice Floyd said Miss Davies had received ‘less than full recompense’ for her contribution to the farm which could not be measured in purely financial terms.

The appeal judge concluded: “This is in many ways a tragic case.

“The bitterness between the parties was such that each had few, if any, good words to say about the other.

“The fact remained, however, that between them they had over the years built up, by hard work, great skill and passionate dedication a prodigious Holstein pedigree milking herd and a highly successful business.

“It is greatly to be hoped that they might now be able to resolve such remaining differences as they have in relation to Eirian’s entitlement without recourse to further costly and divisive litigation”.

Judge Milwyn Jarman told the earlier county court hearing that the bitter relations between Eirian Davies and her parents came to a head after she discovered their plans to split the farm equally between the three sisters.

“After one such argument with her father in February 2010, she went to the barn and put a rope from a beam around her neck,” said the judge, adding that, by good fortune, a farm worker saw what was happening and intervened.

Although there was evidence that her parents had “pinned their hopes” on Eirian over the years, they had become increasingly annoyed by her relationships with men following her divorce.

The judge said part of this concern was – not so much the men involved – but “any children that they had and how that may impact upon their duties to keep the business in the family”.

“Her mother referred to a string of men, to whom she referred as ‘wretches’, with kids behind them,” said the judge.

Family relations hit rock bottom in August 2012 during a “physical altercation” between Eirian and her parents in the milking parlour.

“Accounts differ about that altercation, but at some point milk was thrown over Eirian by her mother and she and her father ended up entangled on the floor where Eirian bit her father’s leg”, the judge said.

“Eirian received from her parents the next day a notice terminating her services, and two weeks later a notice to quit the farmhouse requiring vacant possession by October 31 2012”.

Despite the intense friction in the family, the judge said it was to their credit that Eirian and her parents had over the years “by hard work, great skill and passionate dedication built up a prodigious Holstein pedigree milking herd and a highly successful business”.

He described Eirian as having a “passionate interest in pedigree milking cows”, also referring to her evidence that she was consistently promised that the farm would one day be her’s.

“Eirian says that she first heard that ‘it will all be your’s one day’ when she was still at secondary school, for example when her mother took her sisters shopping and she was left at home, as she put it, ‘with a muck fork’.

“She says she regularly missed school and that her sisters were not interested in farming at all.

“She claims to have heard the same thing regularly thereafter from both parents, whenever she asked for money. She was told: “don’t kill the goose that lays the golden egg'”.

A “major factor” in the family’s difficult relationship was the “strong personalities of both mother and daughter”, he noted, as well as Eirian’s frustration at her role in the farming business not being formalised.

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Pembrokeshire Celebrates its Tourism Champions at the 2024 Visit Pembrokeshire Croeso Awards

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What a night!

Last week Pembrokeshire recognised and celebrated its Tourism Champions at the 2024 Visit Pembrokeshire  Croeso Awards, hosted by Jamie Owen and held at Pembrokeshire College. These are businesses and organisations who deliver memorable experiences for visitors to Pembrokeshire throughout the year. Many congratulations to all the winners and those shortlisted:

Accessible & Inclusive Award | Winner: Windswept Paddle Ability Water Sports
Runners Up: Blue Horizons CIC Surf Club, Havard Stables

Best Activity, Experience or Tour | Winner: Sweet Home Alpaca
Runners Up: Llyn Llys Y Fran Lake, Pembrokeshire Alpaca Trekking

Best Attraction Award | Winner: Carew Castle and Tidal Mill
Runners Up: Heatherton World of Activities, Picton Castle Gardens

Best B&B, Inn and Guesthouse | Winner: Elm Grove Country House
Runners Up: Roch Castle, Penrhiw Priory

Best Camping & Glamping Award | Winner: Florence Springs Glamping and Camping Village
Runners Up: Beavers Retreat Glamping, Nights Under Canvas

Best Caravan Park | Winner: Trees Caravan Park
Runners Up: Redford Caravan Park Ltd, Lawrenny Quay Holiday Park

Best Dog Friendly Award | Winner: The Pembrokeshire Pet Bakery
Runners Up: Sleekstone Holidays, Cwm Connell Coastal Cottages

Best Event Award | Winner: 4theRegion
Runners Up: Carew Castle and Tidal Mill, Pembrokeshire Coast National Park Authority

Best Place to Eat  Award | Winner: Fernery Restaurant 
Runners Up: The Really Wild Emporium, Blas Restaurant 

Best Self-Catering 1-3 Units | Winner: Sleekstone Holidays
Runners Up: Manorbier Castle – Self-let Accommodations, Dyffryn Conin Farm Holiday-Let, Preseli Hills Cottages 

Best Self-Catering 4+ Units | Winner: Bluestone National Park Resort
Runners Up: Musselwick Farm Cottages, Florence Springs Luxury Lodges

Bro a Byd (Environmental & Sustainable) Award | Winner: The Really Wild Emporium
Runners Up: Tŷ Hotel Milford Waterfront, Carew Castle and Tidal Mill

Best Hotel Award | Winner: Tŷ Hotel Milford Waterfront
Runners Up: Grove of Narberth, Twr y Felin Hotel

Pub of the Year Award | Winner: The Wolfe Inn Wolfscastle
Runners Up: The Cove Bar & Restaurant, Ferry Inn

Rising star Award | Winner: Charly Dix, Lan y Mor Restaurant

Sustainable & Immersive Experience for Cruise Passengers Award | Winner: 
Fishguard Bay Welcome

Tourism Service/Product Supplier Award | Winner: The Really Wild Emporium
Runners Up: The Pembrokeshire Pet Bakery, St Davids Old Farmhouse Brewery

Emma Thornton CEO of Visit Pembrokeshire commented: “This event was a result of an exciting partnership between Visit Pembrokeshire, the Seren collection and Pembrokeshire College who worked together to deliver an exceptional experience for our guests serving a delicious 3 course meal featuring locally sourced Pembrokeshire produce. This was partnership working at its best. A big thank you to all our Category sponsors and supporters without whom this event would not have been possible.”

 The winners will now go forward to the Southwest Regional Awards later this year, followed by the National Visit Wales Awards in Spring 2025.

To see highlights from the event visit https://www.visitpembrokeshire.com/croeso-awards/gallery-2024/

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Shakespeare’s Globe presents Othello on the Torch Theatre Screen

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CELEBRATED by many, Othello has risen through the ranks of the Met police. But can his hard-won reputation, his marriage to his new wife Desdemona, and his own subconscious survive the toxic systems that surround him?  Answers to these questions can be discovered at the Torch Theatre on Tuesday 12 November as the critically-acclaimed Shakespeare’s Globe production of Othello is brought to the Torch Theatre cinema screen.

Sixteenth-century Venice becomes modern-day London’s Docklands, as the Moorish general Othello grapples with many of the same issues that successful Black people have faced for centuries.

Experience Shakespeare’s confronting look at the destructive impact of institutional racism, toxicmasculinity, and a justice system locked in a vicious cycle of self-fulfilling prophecy, set within a hostile modern police force.

In her review in the Guardian, Arifa Akbar awards the drama four stars.

She noted: “There is great musicality too, with songs and a score that is jazzy at times, foreboding at others. Ultimately, the concepts lead to a surfeit of ideas, pushing against each other. At over three hours, the tension drops, although the play never loses its potency and offers a genuinely new, exciting experience.”

Director Ola Ince debuted in the intimate, candlelit Sam Wanamaker Playhouse with this ‘inspired’ (The Guardian), and ‘profound’ (Evening Standard) and ‘masterfully redefined’ (West End Best Friend) take on Shakespeare’s blistering tragedy.

Cinema audiences will also be treated to bonus content with a behind-the-scenes interviews and a Globe Theatre tour (during intermission).

Othello will be screened at the Torch Theatre on Tuesday 12 November at 7pm. Ticket prices: Full: £15.00. Concessions: £13.00 and U26: £8.50.To book your tickets or for further information, contact the Box Office on01646 695267 or visit torchtheatre.co.uk.

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Large fire at Bramble Hall Farm – Arson suspected

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FIREFIGHTERS have brought a large blaze under control at Bramble Hall Farm in Pembroke Dock.

The fire broke out in a portacabin filled with tyres and scrap materials late on Tuesday night (Nov 5).

The alarm was raised at 11:34pm by the farm owner, who reported being woken by loud bangs.

Mid and West Wales Fire and Rescue Service crews from Milford Haven and Pembroke Dock Fire Stations were dispatched to the scene.

Firefighters at Bramble Hall Farm (Image: Herald)

On arrival, firefighters found a shipping container with mixed scrap and around 100 tyres fully alight. The crews used four breathing apparatus sets, a ground monitor, a 45mm jet, two hose reel jets, and a water bowser to tackle the fire.

The blaze was fully extinguished by 5:07am on Wednesday morning (Nov 6), after crews worked through the night to contain the flames and dampen down remaining hotspots.

A local resident, Sean Burns, who was present at the scene, suspects the fire may have been started deliberately and has provided information to authorities, who are investigating the cause.

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