The Farmers Mart Aug-Sep 2018 - Issue 58 | Page 10

10 FARM NEWS
AUG/SEP 2018 • farmers-mart.co.uk
FROM VIKING TO YORKSHIRE MAN
Howard Scaife is one of life’s colourful driven characters. A true Yorkshireman at heart with a
love and respect for the countryside. It was a chance meeting at the Great Yorkshire Show and
our ensuing chat where I came to learn all about The Original Yorkshire Clothing Company Ltd
and the man behind it. Both the company and the man are far more than they initially appear.
HOWARD comes across as talkative pas-
75263 - The Original Yorkshire Clothing Co Ltd - QUTR.pdf 1 22/08/2018 10:07:26
C
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Supporting
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sionate and in true Yorkshire fashion – to the
point. However, there is much more behind
the man. Howard’s ancestors were lat-
ter-day illegal immigrants (Vikings) who liked
Britain that much they stayed, themselves
evolving into successful Cumbrian sheep
Farmers and smallholders for 1000 years!
The Scaife’s finally eventually settled
in Yorkshire in the Washburn valley and
Nidderdale and continued as farmers right
up until the 1960’s. In WW1 a young Arthur
Scaife was plucked from the dales hills
never having been on a bus, car or train and
sent to Mesopotamia from which the young
lad never returned. In WW2 Howard’s father
was injured in North Africa being I of 5,000
British & USA troops killed/injured fighting
the Vichy French. Howard gets a bit emo-
tional about this exploding in frustration
that our politician’s did not give President
Macron of France “the Agincourt salute”
when he said that WE, France together with
Frankfurt will destroy the economic heart
of The City of London unless you comply
with EU requirements.
Before calming down and explaining that
after the war his father had to leave the
farm and his uncle ran it until he in turn had
to leave in tragic circumstances.
Howard is understandably passionate
about the armed forces and the country-
side which I will come to shortly.
With the farming line for the Scaife’s finally
drawing to a close, young Howard stud-
ied Engineering at Keighley Tec and then,
undeterred by his father’s and grandfather’s
brother’s experiences, keen to do his bit
for Queen and country, joined the army,
specifically the REME and Army Air Corps,
eventually leaving following injury in Borneo
whilst serving for the 1 st 7 th Gurkha rifles
(tough as Yorkshiremen but shorter! accord-
ing to Howard).
After the army Howard worked for sever-
al years in engineering and manufacturing
acquiring a wealth of knowledge and ideas.
He then set up a specialist manufacturing
company that made machines for the
automated manufacture of suits. These
were ground-breaking machines, which
he exported worldwide. Howard enjoyed
enormous success and rose to the top of
his game then just when things were going
swimmingly in 2009 two large customers
went bust and brought the entire empire
crashing down. Although this was a massive
blow, you can’t keep a good man down es-
pecially a Yorkshireman like Howard! With
his wealth of knowledge and experience
Howard then started doing consultancy
work on garment factory development
projects in Eastern Europe, mainly in Ro-
mania including the beautiful Transylvania
region. He also for fun and to help a small
commune make some money encouraged
them to grow organic Transylvanian Garlic,
the idea being to export it with “appropriate
Dracula style packing.”
‘ Howard is passionate
about the countryside,
so 10% of all online
sales made will go to
3 charitable groups
supporting the countryside,
rural communities and
businesses, The Addington
Trust, The Farming
Community Network and
The Rare Breeds Trust
’
However, the locals instead of keeping
the best bulbs to replant and develop the
product line sold them off for ‘cash now’.
He has also found time to be involved
with other development projects helping
rural communities in Transylvania Romania
whilst encouraging them to play the “Gen-
tleman’s sport of rugby.”
I asked why rugby his reply why not?
Howard told me an interesting experience
he had walking 500k from Hungary to a town
in the centre of Transylvania with a Romani-
an colleague to raise money for injured rug-
by players. As they passed through towns
and villages rattling their collection tins locals
asked. What are you doing and why?
We explained we were walking 500 k to
raise money and awareness. The locals
usual reply was. If you are walking you do
not need any money and you h