Crisis-hit farmer has sinking feeling

A farmer whose livelihood was devastated by the foot-and-mouth crisis last year hopes to revitalise his business with a ‘mini-Eden project’ on his land

This week Paul ‘snapper’ Richards of Wooden Top Farm, West Coker, put in a planning application for a self-sustainable, sub-terranean house in the shape of a number nine

The scheme is the culmination of years of planning to turn his business into an eco-friendly farm, which he believes could become a model to halt the terminal decline of the farming industry

During last years foot-and-mouth crisis Snapper, aged 46, was forced to destroy his heard of cows because they were starving after government regulations restricted the movement animal feed.

And earlier in the year Snapper hung a line of underwear across the a30 through the village to express his sentiments that ‘life is pants’

He has named his plans project Esperance – after the French word for hope – and as well as the house he aims to plant a woodland

Snapper, aged 46, said: ‘Last year was an absolute disaster for my business, but it has bought my plans for the project forward’

The centre-piece of the scheme will be the three-storey, underground and solar-powered house. The site chosen for the building is a hill on his land with picturesque views over three counties – Dorset, Devon and Somerset 

The home will be built in the shape of a number nine – which Snapper believes is an extremely spiritual number as it is the number of planets in the solar system and the number of months a woman is pregnant for!

If the project is successful Snapper believes that local schoolchildren could visit the site to learn about green issues.

He said ‘If everything goes to plan it should be completed in about five years. There are a lot of hurdles to cross but so far everyone has been very positive. It could be like a mini-Eden project for the area’

‘we should have been moving towards this type of farming 20 or 30 years ago, but it is only now that environmentalism has moved into the mainstream. Basically our generation has messed up the planet. But if we can teach the next generation about environmental issues then there is hope’