June 1948 – July 2023

In 1948 Dave Bird was born in the white house, which is still there, at the crossroads on the corner of Melton Road and Seagrave Road. His grandfather was a farmer who had been blessed with eight children, six of whom were boys, and they in turn were each given parcels of land to farm as tenant farmers. In the past there were Birds farming everywhere up Melton Road! They prospered as they helped each other out especially with farm machinery that one might have but another not.

Dave went to school at Humphrey Perkins, often skiving off because he hated sitting still. He would run home to help his father on the farm; an understanding man who never criticised him for this. Restlessness was a characteristic of Dave. He was always busy working, mending agricultural machinery, going shooting, writing, making future plans or devising activities for his children. His daughter Heidi said that he was a fun dad. The photograph illustrates this as he often pulled children in a trailer around Brooksby Agricultural College when he worked there. Heidi is the one waving.

After Humphrey Perkins Secondary School Dave trained to be a car mechanic. Even as a teenager he had been repairing agricultural machinery and his love of tractors was responsible for him eventually using his skills on farming machinery once more. Later he studied for a BSc and qualifi ed as a lecturer; after earlier appointments outside Leicestershire he obtained a position teaching about agricultural machinery at Brooksby Agricultural College. He returned to farming when his father died but again still concentrating on the hardware involved.

But the greatest machine Dave loved most of all he couldn’t repair! It was a plane. He adored piloting a small aircraft and had given up chain smoking to be able to afford the costs. He flew regularly every month for half an hour up to the month before he died.

Many Barrow Voice readers will remember the name Dave Bird from his articles in the magazine. He wrote very interestingly about the countryside and was a knowledgeable naturalist as a result of his upbringing and love of wildlife. Among his choice of subjects were old farming methods, foxes, keeping bantam chickens, tractors and even a mysterious encounter with a ghost!

Although he loved dogs, for the last 25 years of his life he chose not to keep one as they frightened the wild life away from the fi elds he could see from the windows of his home. He let his hedges grow tall and planted many trees. He also very kindly let a local Riding for the Disabled Association (RDA) group use his fields for their sessions one summer when they were temporarily made homeless.

Dave Bird will be deeply missed by his wife, Joan; children Daniel, Adam and Heidi and his many friends. If you knew Dave and would like to make a donation to Loros in his memory, please go to: https://davidbird.muchloved.com

Gaynor Barton