Our family has lived here for 200 years.

St Augustines Farm is a real family farm where our family has farmed for 6 generations.  Today the farm is run by Robert and Elaine Jewell.  Our farm is a 70 acre farm in the village of Arlingham which is set in the Horseshoe Bend of the River Severn.

Robert’s great great grandfather was the first member of our family to farm here and we still live here with our daughter today.  St Augustines Farm was one of several farms belonging to Arlingham Court and Great Uncle William Merrett (known as “WP”), who was a well known local character, was the tenant.  When the Arlingham Estate was sold in 1919, WP bought the farm.  He later sold it to his brother Maurice Merrett.  Maurice was Robert’s grandfather and was the last of the family to rely entirely on horses.  In 1950 he retired and Robert’s parents, Percy and Margaret Jewell, took over the farm.  During Percy’s time the horses were finally phased out and tractors, machine milking and electricity were introduced.  In 1977 Percy retired and Robert took over. 

The farm continued as a dairy farm with over a hundred cows plus occasionally crops of wheat or barley grown.  In 1988 Robert and Elaine first opened their gates to families and school children, one of the first farms to let the public in to see what farms and farming are really all about. 

In 1996 we started converting the farm to Organic production and by 1998 St Augustines Farm was accepted for registration by the Soil Association.  We joined the Organic Milk Suppliers Cooperative who supply organic milk to Yeo Valley, most supermarkets and others.  We continue living and working here and, as our family has so enjoyed being here, we hope you will also enjoy your visit to our farm.

The Legend of St Augustines Visit
In 597 AD Pope Gregory sent St Augustine the prior of his monastery in Rome, with 40 monks to begin the evangelisation of southern England.  Augustine heard of the Celtic Church in Wales and arranged to meet its bishops.  Legend says that he travelled from Canterbury in 604 AD via Corinium (Cirencester) and along the ancient trackway to Arlingham.  From Arlingham he crossed the River Severn on the old ford near the farm to Broadoak for “The Synod of the Oak”.  An old Welsh manuscript records this first ever church conference “on the banks of the Severn, on the border of the Forest of Dean and beneath an oak tree”.  The name Broadoak perpetuates the famous oak and a field there is called ‘Stroods’ – Danish for meeting place.  The ill fated meeting failed to mend the rift in the church.  The Pope made Augustine the first Bishop of Canterbury and it is said that 10,000 people were converted to Christianity before Augustines death.

How The Farm Got Its Name

Arlingham belonged to the Berkeley Hundreds and thus to one of the few families who can trace their ancestors back to 1066.  Robert Fitsharding built Berkeley Castle in 1154 and then the Abbey of St Augustine in Bristol which he endowed in 1154.  He gave land to the Abbey from his manor in Arlingham which in those days included land adjoining the river so he gave the monks half the fishing rights.  St Augustines Farm remains today to commemorate the visit of St Augustine 15 centuries ago.