London leaver: 'We left creative jobs and a rented Streatham flat for organic farming in Devon'

A former south Londoner, Leah found farming isolating at first, but over time has become part of her rural Devon community

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Before she became a farmer’s wife, Leah Harris’s agricultural experience was limited to the occasional visit to a farm shop.

She also had zero experience of raising crops — since her London life was spent renting a succession of flats she didn’t even have a garden.

Today Leah lives on a circa 200-acre farm in rural Devon, cultivating organic vegetables, wrangling a flock of 100 sheep, and responsible for the care of almost 50 horses.

“Moving to the middle of nowhere felt a little bit weird and alien at first, but now I love it,” she says.

“I didn’t ever envision this kind of future for myself, and it can be hard, but I feel so grateful to have had the opportunity.”

Leah moved from her native Cambridgeshire to London to study art, and met her future husband Jake, soon after leaving university.

He had also moved to the capital to complete his education, studying film. With graduate jobs hard to find they met while doing temporary admin jobs with the NHS.

Leah was more than happy with big city life. “I loved London – the galleries, the restaurants – and I never thought I would leave,” she says.

Riverford.co.uk

But Jake had been born and raised at the family farm in Devon, and he and Leah got into the habit of spending a weekend there every couple of months.

“It was just such a different experience – I loved it,” says Leah.

“Being brought up in Cambridgeshire I wasn’t used to hills or rugged cliffs, and the countryside in Devon is just beautiful.

“We would walk down through the fields and woods to the pub in the village, and it was very bucolic. It was a culture shock but in a really decompressing way.”

Jake always knew he had the option of returning to Devon to take over the farm at some point. Leah was open to the idea, although she saw it as a long term plan rather than something she would be doing in her twenties.

Meanwhile she and Jake both eventually found jobs in their respective fields, Leah as a prop maker and Jake as a camera technician, and home was a rented flat in Streatham.

Then Leah’s best friend died, and the couple began to reflect on the fragility of life. “It was just a real wake up call that life can be really short,” she says.

Rather than plunge straight into rural life the couple agreed to ease themselves into it.

Riverford.co.uk

Jake quit his job and moved down to the farm, which is close to the twin villages of Newton Ferrers and Noss Mayo, near Devon’s south coast.

Leah, meanwhile, lived a double life for almost three years.

She started out working in London during the week and weekending at the farm, then got a part time job at the Theatre Royal in Plymouth, which allowed her to spend a longer part of the week in the West Country.

She finally made the move fully in 2013 and the couple married that same year, at the farm.

Their first marital home was half of the farmhouse, with Jake’s dad Roger living in the other house. They decided to split the business of running the farm, with Roger running the on site stables and riding school and Jake and Leah, both now 40, doing the farming.

They converted the farm to organic, and now grow crops of black kale and French beans which are sold through Riverford Organic Farmers (riverford.co.uk).

They also grew their family with two children, Martha, 10, and Barnaby, almost two. The final family member is farm dog Flo, a huntaway who was bred for cattle herding.

And when Roger died in 2020 Leah and Jake took over the equestrian side of the farm, and are assisted by up to 11 staff depending on the season.

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Leah’s working day is varied. At the moment, while Barnaby is pre-school, she is focussing on admin which keeps her indoors. As he gets older she will return to the seasonal rhythm of farm life.

That means starting work at 8am, spending the winter months digging drains, fixing fencing, and preparing the ground.

Lambing season begins in April, and they will also start planting their crops. Harvesting begins in July, and continues right through until Christmas.

When she is not working or looking after children, Leah runs, rides, and rows on the estuary of the River Yealm.

“When I first moved down I found it really isolating, although we had loads of friends from London who wanted to come and stay,” she says.

But, over time, Leah has made friends through work, with fellow organic farmers, and by working part time in the local pub for a while so she could enmesh herself in the village community.

“Living on the farm has definitely changed me, or at least brought out elements that I didn’t know I had, like resilience,” she says.

“I really like doing practical, physical work, and it has given me the opportunity to learn more of those skills.”

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