Roland: So they bought it in the 60s, my father then was fairly young, it was his first time, but from what I can remember, it was fairly cheap at the time and the interest rates were only about 2% so it allowed him to start on the farming ladder. And he was actually very lucky because just after he bought the farm, he won quite a sizable money on the Premium Bonds and that allowed him to stock the farm which is quite amazing. I think it was something like £1000 he won then, but that could buy a lot…a lot of coins at the time. So that gave him a big start and obviously I have benefited from that in the long run as well.
Interviewer Vicki Thompson: So obviously your sons now have come into the farm, have they always wanted to be farmers?
Roland: No, neither of wanted to be farmers at one time. The eldest son when he was in his 20s went to Australia for a year or two and was not particularly interested in farming at the time, but after having two years away, he decided that he wanted to come back on the farm, and of course he came back and then we started the Gower Salt Marsh Lamb. And so my other son joined as well he became part of Gower Salt Marsh Lamb. He does the packing and the selling of the lamb, so it's quite a good combination, really, one son is doing the farming and the others doing the lamb sales.
Interviewer Vicki Thompson: How does that make you feel in terms of how proud you?
Roland: I'm very proud. Extremely proud. Yeah, it's great to see the family tradition being kept on for another generation.
Interviewer Vicki Thompson: Do you feel that there's a lot of pressure, say from your forefathers to keep that tradition going with the farm, to keep the farm in the family?
Roland: I'm not sure there's pressure as such, because obviously they wouldn't know exactly what was happening now, but I think if they did know they'd be extremely proud as well. You know they’d be chuffed to bits.
Interviewer Vicki Thompson: Which is wonderful. I also know that you have grandchildren, which is fantastic and do they show a keen interest when the lambs are coming …?
Roland: They are a bit young at the moment, one is only one and we’ve got a 3 year old and there’s an 8 year old as well. They love coming to the farm. It's a bit soon to see what will happen, but they’d enjoy it.
Interviewer Vicki Thompson: Would you hope that you can encourage them?
Roland: Well, of course that is how it goes and that you know it would be great if they can continue going after us, only time will tell, we'll see what happens.