New Bishop of Lincoln learns about the South Holland’s fertile soils during whistlestop tour of area

The fertile soils of South Holland and challenges facing agriculture came under the microscope during a whistlestop tour by the new Bishop of Lincoln.

The Right Rev Stephen Conway came to realise just how big the county actually is as he visited Wykeham’s Lincolnshire Field Products and St John’s Primary School in Spalding after coming down from Skegness in his second day in the job.

And the former Bishop of Ely has promised that he will be a regular visitor to the district.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced last week that Mr Conway was succeeding the Right Reverend Christopher Lowson following his retirement.

Mr Conway spoke of falling in love with the county and his excitement of taking on this prestigious role after speaking to LFP’s managing director Robin Hancox about the industry.

He said: “I am really excited about it. I have been acting bishop for 15 months before so I got a sense of the county.

“When I was encouraged to put my name forward for this role, I had been the Bishop of Ely for 13 years I could bring my experience from those years. I want to get Lincolnshire in my bloodstream.

“People are facing so much change and we are developing how we as a church can play our part in helping people with change. As a church we are about hope and transformation and I will be the same. I want to bring people together for the wellbeing of the county.

“What I have discovered so far is that South Lincolnshire people have an independent state of mind.

“I want to be respectful of the culture and the place and that means that I have to listen.”

The Bishop spent almost an hour with Mr Hancox learning about the company, which farms 18,000 acres and grows anything from pumpkins to brassicas and sugar beet.

Mr Conway had asked about supermarkets support of British produce, single farm payments and soil quality.

Mr Hancox explained the practices undertaken by his firm to ensure that quality of the silt soils, which also includes grazing sheep during the winter months to help enrich the land, the rotation of crops and even the use of a drone.

He said: “Farmers are custodians of the countryside without looking after the land or our soil, we have nothing.”