Young Farmers

Olveston Young Farmers' Club

Olveston Young Farmers is a youth-run organisation, meeting at 7.30 pm on Monday evenings, mainly at Falfield Village Hall, sometimes at Elberton or Tockington.  We have a very varied programme of talks and visits and we carry out fundraising activities for local and national charities, as well as for club funds.  Our current membership is around 35 people and our ages range from 10 - 26 years.  We feel like a big family!

We welcome guests to visit the club and find out what we are about.  We are always happy to introduce a new member to all the fun we have through competitions, socialising and fundraising.  Click here if you want to see some comments from current members about what they got out of joining.

We are the most southerly-based of the Young Farmers' Clubs associated with Gloucestershire Young Farmers' Clubs and we compete against other YFCs in, for example, an annual quiz night, a ten pin bowling evening and a county skittles tournament.  At the Annual YFC Rally, all the Gloucestershire clubs take part in many competitions to show the public what we do, after which we party late into the night!  We also socialise with members of other YFCs at the annual Three Counties Ball in Bristol and the Snow Ball held at Cheltenham Town Hall.

Olveston Young Farmers' Club was established in 1945, over 60 years ago!  Back in those days, it was a chance for farmers' sons and daughters to get together and socialise out of the hay-making season.  They regularly met for skittles and bought a few drinks with their hard-earned money.  They enjoyed attending dances and taking part in a number of traditional competitions such as ploughing matches and hedge laying.  Things haven't changed a lot now.  We still socialise heavily and enter competitions but we meet all year round.  The club is open to anybody from any walk of life.  In fact, probably only 20% of the club consists of that rare breed, farmers' sons and daughters.  A declining species!

Every year, a new committee is selected from the current members to carry the club forward into the future.  This is a great team-building exercise, which shares responsibilities.  A lot of new skills can be gained from this process.

"You only get from Young Farmers what you put into it!"

Here are the roles and contact details of this year's committee:

Chairman:

Philip Ball

07779 954215 

Vice Chairman:

Jessica Vaughan

07974 024028

Secretary:

Lisa Sheldon

07867 554584

Treasurer:

Chris Hares

07748 835627

Social Secretary:

Fiona Sharples

07917 756566

Programme Secretary:

Lucy Coward

07876 142591

Sports & Skittles Captains:

Dave Carpenter

Martin Ball

07976 054694

07870 217196

Stock Judging Captain:

Mike Sheldon

07737 739415

Press Correspondent:

Gemma Clinch

07866 265877

Contact details for the county federation of Young Farmers' Clubs, Gloucestershire YFC, are:

Tel: 01452 526032     email: glosyfc@clara.co.uk     http://www.gloucestershireyfc.co.uk/

Olveston Young Farmers