Edgar Dickinson MBE – patron of the arts

“Can I come and see you Edgar?” I asked at the Heckmondwike dinner, “for an article in the choir mag.”
“Aye, when?” He drew a map of where to find him on the back of an envelope and added his phone number. “Come about ten – I’m out after then.”
So I did. Big house and grounds. “You’d better come in then,” and we sat in the lounge surrounded by family photographs.
Life before Longley Farm. Born 1923. Honley Grammar School. Hobbies – physics and machine drawing. Left Hopkinsons as an apprentice engineer at 22 (1945) – member of the works cricket team – to become an agricultural contractor – baling, threshing and ploughing.
Then, in 1948, he bought Longley Farm from Jonas Hinchliffe (Edgar’s granduncle – Jonas’ sister was Edgar’s grandmother). 30 acres with a cottage and a cowshed. Edgar got married and moved in with his new wife who came from Almondbury and worked at Cooper Webb grocer shop (near where Whitegates estate agents are now). In 1949, Edgar’s brother, Joe, came out of the navy, joined the farm and they started buying dairy cows and producing bottled milk. Soon, Joe married and bought Lower Longley Farm.
Cream had been restricted during the war and Edgar saw a chance. When restrictions were lifted they bought a cream separator, then more cows. He couldn’t shift his first batch at Oldham market until a nearby stall holder put it out with his stuff. An accident that began a huge success.
As they couldn’t produce enough milk themselves, they got a license from The Milk Marketing Board, eventually buying their needs from over 200 local farms and dairies. Aged 35 (1958), Edgar went to The Manchester Domestic Trades College to learn about milk hygiene and pasteurisation, thereby creating a lifelong interest in infection. So to yoghurt, cottage cheese, butter and crème fraiche. Then it was 1000 acres of Barnsley, rearing 10,000 pigs and Jersey milk cows (whey is reused as pig food). Along the way (around 1970) they made TV series ‘The Other Man’s Farm’ with Richard Todd and featured in a radio programme by Franklin Engleman.
Edgar retired at 75 (1998). Today, Longley Farm is run by Edgar’s nephew Jimmy Dickinson with a staff of 150. But the story doesn’t stop here.
Edgar has two daughters and a son. Clare lives in Australia with two grandchildren at school. Judith and Michael (accountant) are still in Holmfirth. There are two 2 granddaughters (barrister and a jewellry sales arranger for Sotherby’s).

Edgar is not musical himself but he likes listening to brass bands. He’s been president of Hade Edge for over 20 years and still attends Friday evening practice. The band nearly folded 15 years ago, so he injected some cash, came across Simon, appointed him and they are a championship outfit now, with supporting bands and choir. “Did you see the TV programme?” “No,” I said. He disappeared into a small adjoining office. “Here, look at these,” and proceeded to furnish me with a family photographic archive and a DVD of the band – so I’ve seen it now.Following retirement, Edgar couldn’t keep still so he bought a disused mill in Barkisland. 30 units for plumbers, joiners, motor mechanics and a postal service. And a plastic glass factory, making 150,000 a day 5 days a week. That’s where he is in the afternoons. But perhaps Edgar’s best known venture is ‘The Venue’, part of the Barkisland mill complex specifically for dinner dances and charity events. The Hospice Ball last year raised £23,000. On the 6th December 2005 he was awarded the MBE for services to the community. “She asked me about the band you know. She has a bloke there who feeds her with questions.”Edgar gained a new lease of life five years ago when both knees were replaced at The Elland in one session. “I asked the orthopaedic consultant about his infection control you know. And he told me.”When it came time for the photoshoot, he disappeared upstairs, returning a minute later with his tie neatly knotted.“Where do you get your energy from?”I asked finally. “I don’t know. We never closed. Not even for Christmas Day,” he replied.

Edgar is not musical himself but he likes listening to brass bands. He’s been president of Hade Edge for over 20 years and still attends Friday evening practice. The band nearly folded 15 years ago, so he injected some cash, came across Simon, appointed him and they are a championship outfit now, with supporting bands and choir. “Did you see the TV programme?” “No,” I said. He disappeared into a small adjoining office. “Here, look at these,” and proceeded to furnish me with a family photographic archive and a DVD of the band – so I’ve seen it now.Following retirement, Edgar couldn’t keep still so he bought a disused mill in Barkisland. 30 units for plumbers, joiners, motor mechanics and a postal service. And a plastic glass factory, making 150,000 a day 5 days a week. That’s where he is in the afternoons. But perhaps Edgar’s best known venture is ‘The Venue’, part of the Barkisland mill complex specifically for dinner dances and charity events. The Hospice Ball last year raised £23,000. On the 6th December 2005 he was awarded the MBE for services to the community. “She asked me about the band you know. She has a bloke there who feeds her with questions.”Edgar gained a new lease of life five years ago when both knees were replaced at The Elland in one session. “I asked the orthopaedic consultant about his infection control you know. And he told me.”When it came time for the photoshoot, he disappeared upstairs, returning a minute later with his tie neatly knotted.“Where do you get your energy from?”I asked finally. “I don’t know. We never closed. Not even for Christmas Day,” he replied.

Edgar is not musical himself but he likes listening to brass bands. He’s been president of Hade Edge for over 20 years and still attends Friday evening practice. The band nearly folded 15 years ago, so he injected some cash, came across Simon, appointed him and they are a championship outfit now, with supporting bands and choir. “Did you see the TV programme?” “No,” I said. He disappeared into a small adjoining office. “Here, look at these,” and proceeded to furnish me with a family photographic archive and a DVD of the band – so I’ve seen it now.Following retirement, Edgar couldn’t keep still so he bought a disused mill in Barkisland. 30 units for plumbers, joiners, motor mechanics and a postal service. And a plastic glass factory, making 150,000 a day 5 days a week. That’s where he is in the afternoons. But perhaps Edgar’s best known venture is ‘The Venue’, part of the Barkisland mill complex specifically for dinner dances and charity events. The Hospice Ball last year raised £23,000. On the 6th December 2005 he was awarded the MBE for services to the community. “She asked me about the band you know. She has a bloke there who feeds her with questions.”Edgar gained a new lease of life five years ago when both knees were replaced at The Elland in one session. “I asked the orthopaedic consultant about his infection control you know. And he told me.”When it came time for the photoshoot, he disappeared upstairs, returning a minute later with his tie neatly knotted.“Where do you get your energy from?”I asked finally. “I don’t know. We never closed. Not even for Christmas Day,” he replied.

Edgar is not musical himself but he likes listening to brass bands. He’s been president of Hade Edge for over 20 years and still attends Friday evening practice. The band nearly folded 15 years ago, so he injected some cash, came across Simon, appointed him and they are a championship outfit now, with supporting bands and choir. “Did you see the TV programme?” “No,” I said. He disappeared into a small adjoining office. “Here, look at these,” and proceeded to furnish me with a family photographic archive and a DVD of the band – so I’ve seen it now.Following retirement, Edgar couldn’t keep still so he bought a disused mill in Barkisland. 30 units for plumbers, joiners, motor mechanics and a postal service. And a plastic glass factory, making 150,000 a day 5 days a week. That’s where he is in the afternoons. But perhaps Edgar’s best known venture is ‘The Venue’, part of the Barkisland mill complex specifically for dinner dances and charity events. The Hospice Ball last year raised £23,000. On the 6th December 2005 he was awarded the MBE for services to the community. “She asked me about the band you know. She has a bloke there who feeds her with questions.”Edgar gained a new lease of life five years ago when both knees were replaced at The Elland in one session. “I asked the orthopaedic consultant about his infection control you know. And he told me.”When it came time for the photoshoot, he disappeared upstairs, returning a minute later with his tie neatly knotted.“Where do you get your energy from?”I asked finally. “I don’t know. We never closed. Not even for Christmas Day,” he replied.

Edgar is not musical himself but he likes listening to brass bands. He’s been president of Hade Edge for over 20 years and still attends Friday evening practice. The band nearly folded 15 years ago, so he injected some cash, came across Simon, appointed him and they are a championship outfit now, with supporting bands and choir. “Did you see the TV programme?” “No,” I said. He disappeared into a small adjoining office. “Here, look at these,” and proceeded to furnish me with a family photographic archive and a DVD of the band – so I’ve seen it now.
Following retirement, Edgar couldn’t keep still so he bought a disused mill in Barkisland. 30 units for plumbers, joiners, motor mechanics and a postal service. And a plastic glass factory, making 150,000 a day 5 days a week. That’s where he is in the afternoons.
But perhaps Edgar’s best known venture is ‘The Venue’, part of the Barkisland mill complex specifically for dinner dances and charity events. The Hospice Ball last year raised £23,000. On the 6th December 2005 he was awarded the MBE for services to the community. “She asked me about the band you know. She has a bloke there who feeds her with questions.”
Edgar gained a new lease of life five years ago when both knees were replaced at The Elland in one session. “I asked the orthopaedic consultant about his infection control you know. And he told me.”
When it came time for the photoshoot, he disappeared upstairs, returning a minute later with his tie neatly knotted.“
Where do you get your energy from?” I asked finally. “I don’t know. We never closed. Not even for Christmas Day,” he replied.