January Newsletter 2023

Obituary Margaret Atkinson
On leaving school at 16, Margaret
worked in the accounts department
at ICI Harrogate and studied maths
GCE and farm records and accounts
at evening class at Harrogate
College of Further Education.
Margaret continued her studies at
Lindsey Farm Institute at Riseholme
in Lincolnshire, gaining a distinction
in Farm Secretarial Work, typing,
private secretarial work and
shorthand.
Margaret returned to her beloved
Yorkshire and set up her own
business in agricultural accounts
and costings, working for two
titled families as well as farmers
with large pig units. Her business went from strength to strength
driven forward by the determined and forward-thinking lady we
all knew.
Margaret was an active member of Winksley cum Grantley Young
Farmers Club from an early age and it was there that she met
Michael, her husband to be. She was the club secretary and at
one point the district YFC secretary as well.
Margaret was a competitive sports player and played hockey
from the age of 13. Her passion for hockey never faltered,
despite having her two front teeth knocked out whilst playing for
the college. Typical of Margaret she was very competitive and
represented Yorkshire at hockey and woe betide anybody who
fouled her intentionally! She continued to play for Ripon Ladies
into her mid 50s.
Some 5 years after Mike had proposed to Margaret when he
was only 17 and a half, they were married at St Nicholas church,
West Tanfield on the 26th April 1969. They moved to Kirkby
Malzeard where Mike farmed, 12 months later Harvey was born,
so Margaret treated herself to 10 days maternity leave. Two years
later Bradley came along and this time the maternity leave was
reduced to 7 days. After another 2 years Lindsey was born and
the maternity leave was just 2 days, it was probably a weekend!
Several grandchildren arrived later.
It was often said that Margaret burned the candle at both ends.
She really did live life in the fast lane. She worked hard and played
hard, carrying out her farm secretarial business during the day
and playing hockey, tennis and badminton during the evenings
and weekends. Fortunately, her parents lived next door to do the
necessary babysitting. At weekends the boys were shipped off to
scouts, whilst Lindsey went with her dad to the markets to gather
his luck money.
Margaret loved to talk and no matter where she was or who she
was with, was never short of a word or two.
Always wanting to keep busy, Margaret was looking for a new
challenge for her 40th birthday, so one weekend they decided to
visit Billy and Jane Turner’s Brampton Charolais herd and bought
3 young Charolais cows and calves. Two of the cows were used
for embryo transfer and became the nucleus of the Mowbraypark
herd. The herd became very successful breeding some top-quality
animals such as Gigi, who won the Royal Show and was part of
a winning Burke Trophy team; Napoleon was a Perth supreme
champion; Paramount was a successful A I sire. They also bred
the male champion at the last Royal Show and so the list goes on.
The Mowbraypark herd were the first to export Charolais cattle to
Romania, as well as semen to Australia and Zimbabwe.
When Mike and Margaret visited
Brampton on that first visit, they
came into the house for a cup of
tea and Med and I got on with them
like a house on fire and we became
lifelong friends.
Margaret was committed to this
new chapter of her life and she was
appointed secretary of the Yorkshire
region of the British Charolais Cattle
Society and over the years helped
organise numerous functions to
promote the Charolais breed. She
held this position up to the present
time.
Mike and Margaret became very
involved in the global world of Charolais and attended several
overseas congresses, as well as events in the UK. Of particular
note was a trip to Sardinia when British Charolais took on the
French Herd Book at football. Of course, Margaret played and
came out with her old hockey tactics and took out the star player
of the French team by kicking his shins!
Margaret supported several charities and held fund raising
events for Cancer Research, the Yorkshire Air Ambulance and the
Addington Fund. Consequently, as a result of her tireless charity
work, she was invited to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party
where she met the Queen.
Margaret’s competitive side never faltered and when she retired
from sport, she decided politics would be the next challenge.
She became the secretary of the Kirkby Malzeard and District
Conservative Club, which sparked her initial interest to stand for
a seat on Harrogate Borough Council. She eventually won her
seat, where she served since May 2002, she went on to become a
North Yorkshire County Councillor in 2013. Margaret represented
Harrogate Borough Council on the Yorkshire Agricultural Society
Agriculture Committee. In May of this year Margaret was
appointed to serve as the last ever chair of North Yorkshire
County Council before it is replaced by a new unitary authority
next year.
Margaret, as always, was fully committed to this role and
attended as many civic functions as possible, often being escorted
by Mike or the county chauffeur. One particular highlight was
a recent invitation to meet the Prince and Princess of Wales at
Scarborough.
It was Mike’s preferred choice that she was driven to the various
functions so as to keep the body repair bills to a minimum, as
she tended to drive herself a little too fast on some of the narrow
country lanes.
She was such a high mileage model that it was a regular
occurrence for her to don her boiler suit on a morning and do
some farm jobs before dashing back to the house for a shower,
change of clothes, pick up the chain of office and be whisked
away by the chauffeur to a function.
Margaret was a busy person and as the old saying goes if you
want something done, ask a busy person and Margaret was
always there to help out.
There is no doubt Margaret’s untimely passing has left a hole in
many people’s lives but we should remember her as a positive,
hardworking, generous and caring person who doted on her
family.
No bull works harder for the farmer, the plate and the planet 23