We meet Bristol’s last working farmer who’s fighting to save her livelihood 

I meet Catherine Withers at Bristol’s last working farm, which she says is facing a ‘persecution of democracy’.  

Yew Tree Farm in Bedminster Down is the third generation farmer’s livelihood, but she fears this could be taken away from her at any moment. 

A Site of Nature Conservation, Catherine's family has farmed the land for almost 60 years, but she says she is now having to ‘defend it from all the applications coming her way thick and fast.’    

On November 7, contractors took chainsaws to an ancient hedgerow on the farm to create a new access point, returning later in the week.  

And part of the land is proposed to become an extension of the neighbouring South Bristol Cemetery and Crematorium, with the planning application due to be decided on on November 29.  

This is despite the site being protected in the council’s draft Local Plan, which dropped a previous version's allocation of 200 homes on part of the land.  

For Catherine, whose family have been farming for 400 years, she says it is a ‘really depressing time’ and that she is ‘really weakened’. 

On a cold and windy November morning, I follow Catherine, 54, through some of the 60 acres of fields, with hillside views of the city and Clifton Suspension Bridge.  

“This is all I know,” says Catherine, who grew up on the farm. ‘‘When I see wildlife here, I feel responsible to protect it. When I see this ancient oak here, I feel responsible to protect it. If it goes on my watch. I feel I have failed my whole life.

”I plan to live my days here and set a good example, helping the world still have a future.” 

With animals including cattle, pigs, horses and hens, Catherine says the farm, which is believed to have more than 1,000 trees, is also important for the climate and ecology. 

She added: “The planning department is doing nothing to protect it, which is tragic in the 21st century when we know we’re facing a mass extinction, a planet heading toward unforeseen climate change.     

“In lockdown, people’s attitudes have changed and politicians are only catching up with how invested we are in our communities. We really care about where they live.”  

As I follow Catherine around the farm, she realises her lock on a gate to the field next to the farm has been changed. She has an easement to the land owned by Longmoor Land Limited.   

On this land, where access was created through the hedgerow, a new insect was potentially believed to have been found.          

"I’m standing up for nature,” Catherine added. “A whole new insect not yet known to science could be in this field but could be killed from a tractor or herbicide.  

“I feel like I’m under siege. Our water supply is in there so we need to get to our tank. The administration is doing nothing but undermining me, I feel like I’m losing. 

“Luckily the public are there to support me. I get that support from people that just want to see nature thriving and that Bristol is keeping their promises and not eroding them.”        

Catherine is adamant she just wants to protect the farm and own it outright: “I just want to be a grandma, do my farming and be left alone. I should be doing my Christmas orders!”  

In a previous statement regarding the hedgerow cutting, a spokesperson for Bristol City Council said: "Officers are investigating whether works undertaken by the landowner are in accordance with the planning permission in place and conform to the ecological method statement agreed with the consultant ecologists.   

"No evidence has been submitted at present to suggest any breach of planning permission. Officers will continue to monitor the works to ensure they remain in line with the agreed plans in place."  

Longmoor told the BBC they had acted "in exact accordance" with planning permission. A spokesperson said they had "created a new 12ft access in the hedgerow from the lane to their own land solely for agricultural purposes.

"The previous access to the field had been via land owned by Mrs Withers of Yew Tree Farm (who had grazed the Longmoor Land fields under a grazing licence). However, since that grazing licence was terminated last year, a new access is now required, and this has been put in place. .

"Longmoor Land is at the same time planting 250ft of new hedgerow in the same field, replacing the amount of hedgerow removed around 20 times over.”