John and Nellie Bealby, nee Child, arrived at Broomhill Grange in October 1913 as tenants of The Duke of Portland. John, the youngest of six children, was born in Collingham In 1883 the son of Benjamin and Anne. Benjamin was a plough maker at Collingham and well respected in the area.
Having left Collingham John was married to Nellie Child from Thorpe Salvin, where her family were farming. He and Nellie took a farm at Hardwick near Anston after their marriage and two children Mary (b1912 & d. 1935) and Ben (b.1913 & d. 1984) were born there. After their move to Broomhill Grange, Edwinstowe, John was born in 1916 and he lived there until he died in 1989.
Both John and Nellie were keen horsemen, and the farming income was supplemented by “bringing on” horses and selling them, something John had done in his youth. All the children were brought up to ride, and for a short time Mary had a riding school at Broomhill. During the 1950’s many horses went through the “Bealby’s” hands both at point to points and National Hunt racing, the most famous being Larry Finn, Martini and Mariners Hand.
John snr who became known as “The Governor” was forward thinking and innovative. Apart from being an excellent judge of horses, he had a keen eye for good cattle and sheep. John liked to show cattle especially at Christmas Fatstock shows both locally and further a field, winning many prizes. Ben followed in his father’s footsteps as a very keen horse and cattle man, whilst his brother, young John, developed a bent for agricultural engineering, becoming the man to mend “all this fancy new mechanical stuff”.
Before the war, John and Nellie purchased Radmanthwaite Farm, on the outskirts of Mansfield, the first home of John (jnr) and his wife Kate. Later in the early 1940’s he purchased Burnt Leys Farm at Steetley, from Dido Palmer, where Ben and his wife Betty lived and soon afterwards Shireoaks Hall Farm, where “The Governor” built a bungalow, and saw out his days there, dying in 1968.
Just after the war, Welbeck Estates sold off the Clipstone Estate which included Broomhill Grange, of 421 acres together with six cottages for £10,000, and land at New Buildings, for £3750. Some time after the sale, in 1950 Holly Farm and Portland Row cottages were sold and the Bealby family purchased those as well, having farmed both Holly Farm and Yew Tree Farm, across the road. John & Kate lived at Holly Farm after Radmanthwaite, followed by Nellie Bealby and then Robert and Jane until it was sold together with 12 acres in 1969. In 1965 John, The Governor purchased Newbound Farm, Teversal on the outskirts of Pleasley. The family were then farming around 2000 acres, and it is around this mark today although some land has been sold and more purchased. As the business grew, the company of J. Bealby & Sons Ltd was registered in 1956. Duckpool Plantation was bought in 1983, giving the farm a boundary along the River Maun from Kings Clipstone through to the outskirts of Edwinstowe. Square Farm, Hodthorpe, adjunct land to Burnt Leys was purchased in 1996, and more recently some more land at New Buildings, on the outskirts of Clipstone has rejoined the farm.
Staff have been very loyal and stayed with the company for very long periods. In 1980, Snowden Housley, President of Newark & Nottinghamshire Show presented the Long Service Awards. Harold Richardson from Shireoaks won the competition and 7 other members of staff received a barometer. We regularly have an employee honoured in this way, and one was awarded the MBE for his services to Agriculture. Today, three staff total well over 100 years with the family.
John, Kate and their children Robert and Yvonne moved from Holly Farm to Broomhill Grange in early 1946 and the two children grew up there, both riding ponies regularly with their father and the farm foreman Gordon Kellett, who was also Robert’s Godfather. In her late teens Yvonne took on the mantle of being the family jockey and rode several very good horses competing in point to points, show jumping, dressage and cross country. When her favourite “Stolen Joy” went lame (aged 14) it was the perfect opening to start breeding horses, which Yvonne and her father did very successfully. Home bred horses were sold out, one even going to Spain and then competing in France. Yvonne’s favourite homebred Honeybo was kept and ridden by her in many “one day events” later progressing to an outing to Bokelo in Holland. Honeybo died in 2012.