Fred Mouland - A Country Gentleman. Hedgelaying, Wine Making and Farming. Iford Farm, Sussex.

My Great Grandfather Fred Mouland. Frederick Charles Mouland was an English Countryman born in 1909, who worked through nearly a century of farming methods and countryside evolution. The Mouland family has so far been traced back to the 1700's and has a long history of farming. Starting on his father's (Charles William Mouland) farm in Chaldon Herring (Dorset) before they moved onto Barkfold farm in Kirdford, Fred later married and settled at Iford Farm nr Lewes, working for the Robinson family. Fred knew every craft going: Hedgelaying, dairyman/cowman, heavy horses and ''breaking-in'' colts, tractors and farm machinery, ploughing, sowing, ferreting and shooting, ornamental pheasants and poultry, making rabbit nets, thatching, gardening, working donkeys, clearing streams and brooks, wine making.. During ww2, he helped to put German and Italian prisoners of war to work. Fred taught many people in the art of hedgelaying, including his friend the honourable Judge Michael Kennedy QC, who was the highest ranking civil judge in Sussex. In his later years Fred established a TV career and was on various country related shows, newspapers and general news/TV: Country Ways, Taste of the South, Good Morning Television and others. All for his wine making (from wild fruit and flowers), hedgelaying, gardening and general country-cunning - winning numerous hedgelaying awards/trophies, as well as having year after year of prize winning vegetables and winning local wine competitions. Fred involved generations of his family in the countryside and was a charming and interesting gentleman of whom would lend his hand to anything and be there to offer anyone a hand. He happily worked until the day of his peaceful passing, only a very short period before his 90th birthday and having competed in the Oxford Hedgelaying Competition only two months previous. This video is a documentary, professionally made in 1999 after his passing. It is a tribute compliation in his memory and VHS copies were handed to many who knew him. It displays the best of his TV appearances, photographs and details of his farming and family life. Right at the very end, it has a very touching written tribute by John Robinson (of the Robinson family, owners of Iford farm, East Sussex UK - Close to Lewes). In his memory, The South of England Hedgelaying Society trophy/cup for Veteran's best year of re-growth became known as the "Fred Mouland Memorial cup/ trophy". (Fair use statement :Anyone is free to view and share this video. It is property of our family we do not own the programmes he starred in or the music heard within the video however and we respectfully share it in his memory and for use for both education & knowledge of all generations. For family, friends and absolutely anyone interested in Fred as a person and the crafts that he took part in. You are free to share it, but must acknowledge its origins. It should be treated with respect. Please don't re-upload the video or use AI to re-word my honest description with dishonesty.) I have fond memories as a child of his cottage and the land, his donkeys and of him sat in his armchair smoking his pipe. When he passed, we could pick items from his home as a keepsakes.. standing in the cottage, my father (Stephen Mouland) asked me what I would like. I asked for a copy of the photo of him with the axe, that sat proudly on his wall. Me and my father picked fruits from his garden and made a fruit crumble that evening. I heard many stories from my father and grandad about going lamping in Iford with great grandad Fred in the Landrover. I grew up with natural interests in the countryside and shooting, which I pursued with passion. His son (My Grandad) Ron Mouland (Ronald Frederick Mouland), carried on Fred's legacy, as Chairman of the South of England Hedgelaying society. Ron also met Prince Charles while laying a hedge at his Gloucestershire estate, Highgrove and on other occasions. He continued as part of the hedge laying community until his sad passing in 2014. I spent a lot of time with him and he taught me some hedgelaying from age 14. Though sadly to-date the last hedge I laid was with him on a training day in 2010. He also gifted me my first shotgun in 2007, when we went to Sorrell Brothers in East Grinstead, which no longer stands today. I'm lucky and thankful for the times we shared, the life lessons given and I honour my heritage. I have a collection of Ron's VHS videos of hedgelaying that I intend to refurbish and digitise and upload in due course. I hope this is nice for family, friends, the hedgelaying community and anyone with country interests. This is the original uncut video. Released here online, on Youtube, for the first time on 7th October 2025. Uploaded by myself, Declan Mouland, I digitised this VHS to allow it to be respectably archived and viewed how it was produced. #countryside #wine #farming #hedges #family #traditional #community #rurallife #gardening