A FARMER has returned to his Durham roots after a life in agriculture to prepare the next generation for the industry.

Bob Shaw, has come back to to East Durham College’s Houghall Campus as agricultural lecturer, to delivering an new range of land-based short courses, including sheep shearing, dry stone walling, small holding and lambing.

The courses at the campus in Durham will be open to those of ages 16 and over.

Level 1 and 2 full time agriculture students will also be taught by Mr Shaw, who is looking forward to returning to Houghall and treading the ground again which he remembers very well.

Mr Shaw, 58, said: “I was born less than a mile away from Houghall. I attended school just half a mile from here too - while I was there, I used to come here on day release and took every course I could in agriculture.

“Forty years later, I’m back at the Houghall campus. It’s my time now to give something back – I’ve learned a lot during my career and I’m excited to teach everything I can to everyone on one of our courses.”

East Durham College recently invested £13.25 million redeveloping Houghall and this investment included an ultra-modern new pig unit and a new cattle unit with six large pens and forage store to supplement the existing sheep unit down at the original farm site.

Farming is a big passion for Mr Shaw.

He had always wanted to be a farmer, and over his 40 year career, has worked around the world in countries such as Portugal, Spain, Switzerland and France.

He has also owned his own farming business, employing 28 people from many different locations. In one year, the business lambed over 50,000 sheep.

As part of his previous work, Mr Shaw as also selected as Farming Ambassador for the North-West, where he was trained to speak publicly about farming-related issues.

He said: “I’ve had a good career in farming, it’s my time to turn it around and put back what I’ve learned by teaching at Houghall.

“I’m extremely passionate that it’s not always farmers’ sons and daughters who make the best farmers. You can come from any walk of life and find success in the farming industry.

“Farming is so diverse – you could go into anything from lambing and sheep shearing to the fashion industry, supplying wool and leather.

For more information on a range of new land-based short courses, visit www.eastdurham.ac.uk/landbased_short_courses or contact 0191 518 8222.