Obituary: Charles Bevin, the innovative farmer and former Chairman of the Master of Basset Hounds Association

J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025 (photos: family of Charles Bevin).J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025 (photos: family of Charles Bevin).
J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025 (photos: family of Charles Bevin).
Obituary of J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025. Written by his family.

Charles was born in Willey, just south of Lutterworth, and spent his early years on the family farm, doing jobs before and after school. His 98 years straddled the reigns of George V, Edward VIII (he remembered the shock of the abdication), George V, Elizabeth II and Charles III.

In November 1940 he witnessed the bombing of Coventry from his bedroom window and was one of the first people allowed into the city to witness the destruction when he accompanied the milk delivery. His mother was ambitious for his education and enrolled him at Bitteswell school, and he cycled there on a bicycle he bought with his saved up pocket money four miles there and four miles back. He remembered hearing the roar of the jet engines Frank Whittle was testing near the village.

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This daily cycle ride continued through his time at Lutterworth Grammar school and a year working in Barclays Bank. This indoor occupation didn’t suit him so he then enrolled at Harper Adams Agricultural College as it then was. During his school and college years he played rugby and later captained Lutterworth for some time and played for Rugby Lions.

Charles Bevin hunting (photo: Bob Spree).Charles Bevin hunting (photo: Bob Spree).
Charles Bevin hunting (photo: Bob Spree).

After college he managed a couple of farms and joined the Young Farmers. This was where he met Joy Weatherall, and began the quest to find a farm for them to start married life, in partnership with his younger brother Wilf. His middle brother Richard stayed on the family farm. Charles was 23, Joy 20 and Wilf 18 and they were rejected for many opportunities to buy or rent. Eventually, Harry Partridge of Welford was selling The Dairy Farm, (which later was called West End Farm) and their offer was accepted. Charles’s father acted as guarantor for the loan - the time in the bank was not wasted as Charles understood how finance worked and did his own books right up until the end of September this year when his financial year ended.

The young trio worked hard at a time when farming was not prospering. In fact, people were heard to say that those youngsters wouldn’t make it, but Charles was proud to relate that against all odds they did succeed. They had a dairy herd - that all important milk cheque kept the cash flowing - and with a little grey Fergie tractor cultivated much of the farm for arable. 130 acres is not a lot to support a growing family, and there were soon 3 children, Jane, Diana and William. Various ways of adding value to the crops were devised. One was growing thatching straw, which involved a lot of extra work, reaping and standing the stooks, building a rick and finally the threshing which involved an ancient machine and a team of 9 - including the tea lady and the dog to catch the rats. There was a lot of Welford straw on roofs around the district. Then the barley. He acquired a mill in the yard to roll it, bagged it up and delivered the heavy sacks to various farms with a Land Rover and trailer. He was also an expert sheep shearer of both his own and other sheep. Hay was made for use on the farm and also sold to horse owners in the area. His great enthusiasm in the winter was hedge laying, which he excelled at and which provided fire wood for the house.

At first Charles continued to play rugby, but with the milking and the growing family, the away matches became difficult. Fortuitously, he met Dr Eric Morrison who at that time was Master of the Westerby Basset Hounds, and was invited to whip in. Charles had always loved following hounds, and got into trouble at school for extending his lunch hour when they were in the area, so he took to this foot pack immediately and was soon huntsman and Master, a role he enjoyed for 25 years. Thanks to this pastime he knew farmers all over the Westerby country in Leicestershire, Rutland and Northamptonshire. He was rugby fit when he started, so running 16 miles twice a week with the hounds was no problem, and he became very well known in the hound world, as Chairman of the Master of Basset Hounds Association and, of course, on the committee of the Westerby. He was still President and Trustee at his death. He judged hounds at many puppy shows. He also took a great interest in the Pytchley, the Quorn and the Cottesmore, following by car in his later years.

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As well as his outside interests, he took part in village life enthusiastically, being a parish councillor, a school governor, and a member of the Parochial Church Council, always on hand to help set up the fete, selling homegrown Sweet Williams alongside ice creams to make extra money. He was also a church bellringer, and joined the team that rang in the millennium.

J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025 (photo: family of Charles Bevin).J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025 (photo: family of Charles Bevin).
J.C.E. Bevin, known as Charles or Charlie Bevin, 1926-2025 (photo: family of Charles Bevin).

Sadly, his wife Joy suffered from leukaemia and died in 1976. He later met and married Susie Hillman, as she then was, a producer of general and countryside programmes on BBC Radio Leicester. They had two daughters, Lucy and Emily. At this time he put most of the farm down to grass and started to keep sheep. Innovating again, he trialled false teeth for sheep although these did not catch on. He also installed solar panels at an early stage. As the farming became less demanding and he was no longer so active in the hunt he took up gardening with huge enthusiasm. He had sold lettuces he grew as a child to his teachers, so was just carrying on his love of growing things. Sadly, arthritis took its toll and then a spell in hospital with cellulitis and a diagnosis of heart failure slowed him down a lot in the last years of his long life, but he never gave up. The purple sprouting broccoli planted in the summer is showing promise and the freezer is still full.

He loved his family of 5 children, 11 grandchildren and 8 great grandchildren and will be sadly missed by so many people who worked with him on the farm, hunted with the Westerby or knew him in the village where he was out and about until a fortnight before his peaceful death at the home he had loved for 75 years.

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