Bristol24/7 Person of the Year 2023: Catherine Withers

When she was a child, Catherine Withers used to love reading Asterix books, escaping to a land of adventure where the indomitable Gauls are pitted against the might of the Roman Empire.

Over the course of this year, Yew Tree Farm in Bedminster Down has become even more like Asterix’s village, completely hemmed in but fighting back.

And at the heart of that fightback is Catherine, a farmer whose livelihood depends on Yew Tree Farm and is now an eloquent environmental campaigner who despite setback after setback remains committed to ensuring the longterm survival of Bristol’s last remaining working farm.

A threat to an ancient hedgerow saw dozens of supporters form a human chain at the farm in June, before a hole was sawn through the hedgerow by contractors in November.

As the year came to a close, planning permission was controversially granted at the second time of asking to allow South Bristol Cemetery & Crematorium to expand onto land used by the farm.

Yew Tree Farm’s Catherine Withers speaking at a planning meeting in City Hall before councillors voted to allow South Bristol Cemetery & Crematorium to expand onto land used by the farm – photo: Rob Browne

2023 has not been the first year that Catherine and her family have fought off developers. She has previously won battles to prevent a park & ride and then the South Bristol Link Road from being built on the farm’s land.

But over the course of the last 12 months, Yew Tree Farm has resembled Asterix’s village like never before as threats continue to come from all sides.

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On a recent morning, Catherine was hard at work making jam in the former dairy at the farm which has been in use for at least the last 500 years, something that gives Catherine even more determination for her not to be its final custodian.

As well as farming the land, Catherine has this year also hosted social prescribing pilot sessions at the farm, allowing city dwellers to experience nature on their doorstep in an aim to improve their health and wellbeing.

The social prescibing sees people referred through their GP practice, with Catherine taking around ten people in each six-week block for walks around the land, getting them to help extract honey, muck out the chickens or simply pet her horses which she used to ride at eventing competitions when she and they were younger.

“Just being around and walking on grass is actually really good for our our sense of wellbeing,” Catherine explains. “Some of these are people who now come down to the shop regularly or come here for breakfast. They’ve really connected into the farm and it’s somewhere else for them to care about.”

Yew Tree Farm in Bedminster Down is Bristol’s last working farm – photo: Mark Ashdown

As Bristol24/7’s person of the year, Catherine follows in the footsteps of former recipients including David Olusoga and Jayde Adams. So how has 2023 at Yew Tree Farm been for Catherine?

“I hope it’s the year before the year that is peaceful and wonderful and actually the right things happen, where we get better in-depth views on certain decisions that have been made,” says Catherine.

“This isn’t just for the farm, I’m feeling that everything’s fairly citywide at the moment. You can’t help but jump in and see other people in holes similar to yourself.

“What you’ve decided for me is incredible, but there are so many people in the city who are in a worse position than me. And I think that I’m unworthy.

“But I have been through some serious shit this year. Serious, weird, horrible, unfair actions that I’ve been on the end of.

“At the same time, the most amazing people have been around me. I wouldn’t still be here if it wasn’t for the amazing friends and experts in their field that have really put themselves out to help. So I’m completely humbled.

“I feel that I’ve seen some of the worst behaviours and some of the very best behaviours. In time, I hope I’m a wiser person for it. And when my life settles down, which I hope it will – it has to! – I can help other people in other ways.”

A section of ancient hedgerow is destoyed at Yew Tree Farm in November – photo: Betty Woolerton

Catherine says that this year “has made me more empathetic of other people. And people that you wouldn’t think that I could share that much common ground with but my God, when you’ve been in a hole and you see the people that jump in to help you, you’ve got to be there for other people”.

“It’s been a weird year where I have realised what power can do. Power and money feel that they have no limits to hurting you or just trampling over you. It’s as if you don’t exist.”

“And double thinking. How can people get away with double thinking like this? Thinking that we can have all this nature recovery and food production. Yes, we have Gold Sustainable Food City status. But the last working farm in Bristol means absolutely nothing to them.

“So how can they do that? How can you square that? How can you have a councillor that stands behind a banner saying ‘Save Yew Tree Farm SNCI’ (Site of Nature Conservation Interest) and within six months is actually voting for that SNCI to be irretrievably damaged and harmed? It’s insane.

“Then you have the gall to sit on social media throughout the whole (planning) meeting and not say a word. That really hurts. That hurts me personally. Because which one do they believe in?

“Were they on social media so they didn’t have to hear the fact that what should have been proper procedure was not adhered but they can they can reconcile that with themselves? Or were they stood behind that banner without really believing what that was because I know that I couldn’t be that person. I can’t do things I don’t believe in.”

Politicians from all four main parties with Catherine at Yew Tree Farm in June – photo: Yew Tree Farm

Lib Dem councillor for Hengrove & Whitchurch Park, Sarah Classick, was among 11 councillors and cabinet members who posed behind the ‘Save Yew Tree Farm SNCI’ banner and then helped form a human chain at the event at Yew Tree Farm in June.

Classick was also one of the councillors who at a planning committee meeting in November voted for the expansion of South Bristol Cemetery alongside Labour councillors Amal Ali, Farah Hussain and Katja Hornchen, and Tory Lesley Alexander. Bristol24/7 has asked Classick for comment but she has yet to respond.

Catherine says that her very lowest point of 2023 was when this decision to approve the cemetery expansion was made. It was a moment caught on camera by UWE Bristol filmmaking student Nikki Dodd:

Looking back on a bittersweet highlight, Catherine thinks back to the summer’s day when dozens of people helped form the human chain to highlight the need to protect the hedgerow – prior to a section of it being destroyed regardless.

“That was amazing,” Catherine remembers with a smile. “And it really felt that that was a turning point of positivity after the trouble with the gateway and the hedgerow, and things like that.

“So that felt so great. It felt that the council were united and this was going to be a taste of what’s to come. But how wrong I was.”

“It was incredible love,” says Catherine. “That day will really live with me forever. It wasn’t necessarily the councillors that turned up because you can understand that it was a PR thing for them.

“But it’s the people that turned up just because they bloody love the place or they really like what it stands for. They may not shop with me, they may not do whatever, but they want the farm to still be here.

“It just shows how plugged in we can still be to green spaces and working farms and traditional mixed farms that just haven’t changed over the centuries. And we do need them because they’re really precious.

“I’m sure in ten years time, we won’t be talking about this. They will be things that are treasured because it’s going to be such a rarity. I know that Yew Tree Farm will be treasured and it will be thought of as it should be and people will stop coming here and trying to destroy it.”

Catherine and some of her supporters outside City Hall – photo: Rob Browne

Main photo: Rob Browne

Read next:

• Dozens of protesters form human chain at Yew Tree Farm
• Ancient hedgerow destroyed at Bristol’s last working farm
• Cemetery given permission to expand onto farm

Listen to Catherine Withers on episode 71 of the Behind the Headlines podcast: