Feedback from the
Farmyard
The current Dowager Duchess of Devonshire has always kept
chickens. If you have ever been to
Chatsworth, they are roaming freely in the grounds in a very ‘free range’ kind
of way.
Deborah Devonshire (the last of the Mitford’s), along with
her husband the then Duke of Devonshire, transformed Chatsworth into the
magnificent place it is today.
One of her many aspiring qualities is the wonderful way in
which she is able to engage people. One
of the working farms on the Chatsworth estate opened to the public and school trips
were encouraged. The Duchess wanted
children to be able to see farm animals face to face, so to speak, and to be able
to understand the working of a farm and where products came from.
In order for her to gain feedback from the children and
teachers without them actually realising it was her – she donned simple clothes
and a headscarf and pretended to be a farm worker. On one of the cow milking sessions, a young
school boy from Birmingham pointed at the cow and was reported to have said
something along the lines of “Is that where milk comes from? That’s absolutely disgusting”. The Duchess merely smiled. She had achieved the feedback she was looking
for. The child was enlightened and
educated in a process that previously he knew nothing about.
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