Rupert Burr, 57, is the owner of Roves Farm near Sevenhampton, the popular attraction which recently reopened following a fire in its visitor centre. He is married to Joanna and the couple have two grown-up daughters, Charlotte and Pippa. All are involved in the business

ROVES Farm in its current form has its origins in the late 1980s.

Rupert and Joanna Burr, like many sheep farmers, were suffering because of a depression in prices that would last well into the next decade.

“We decided we’d do a lambing open day,” he recalled. “This would have been in 1987. We put up four signs in different places in Highworth.

“That was it. The first time we did it, I think about 25 families showed up. Of those, about 23 came up to us at the end of the day to thank us and say what a good time they’d had. As a result of those comments we decided we’d do it again the next year.

“The next year we did two weekends, then four weekends and then three weeks, and by 1991 we had 4,000 people come through. Jo was doing chips on a trestle table in the corner of a barn and we had a toilet behind a sheet of plyboard.

“It just grew. People started saying, ‘Can we come at other times of the year?’ so we decided to start the concept of the visitor centre.”

Today, Roves Farm boasts a devoted fanbase, tractor and trailer rides, nature walks, a willow maze, an adventure play area, an area for toddlers, huge areas of wild flowers and woodland and various other attractions, in addition to being a working farm.

Mr Burr was born in a Swindon maternity home to a family whose farming heritage goes back to his great grandfather, who divided his time between agriculture and horse dealing.

His father, Godfrey, who died aged 80 in 2001, was a tenant farmer in Almondsbury before being offered a farm tenancy in Highworth in 1933 or 1934.

“He and my mother June hired a train to move the farm,” said Mr Burr. “It pulled into Almondsbury Station. They milked the cows in the morning, moved them to the station, put them on the train, brought them to Highworth, drove them to the new farm and milked them in the evening.”

The young Godfrey Burr established a reputation as an astute farmer whose speeches at Young Farmers’ meetings were listened to attentively. At 27, not long after the end of the Second World War, he was offered a tenancy at the 300 acre Sevenhampton Farm. Some two decades later he was offered a 300 acre tenancy at Roves Farm.

In the early 1980s the family was offered the chance to buy the land they farmed and ended up with a total of 400 acres.

“Just before he died, Dad said to me he reckoned he’d lived through the 80 most interesting and productive years this planet would ever see. He’d learned how to plough with a horse and he’d seen men on the Moon.”

Mr Burr has inherited his parents’ practical approach to getting things done, and this means he sometimes doesn’t see eye to eye with officialdom. He was one of the first farmers in the country to embrace the idea of energy crops, and duly planted 100 acres of willow, only to see the project become bogged down at Whitehall level.

When Swindon’s Eastern Expansion was mooted, he submitted bio-energy plans which he insists could power it, and also drew up a detailed transport plan involving limited space for cars but a dynamic public transport system based firmly on the needs of residents. He has also made detailed calculations for a reservoir. He has yet to hear back from officials about any of these projects.

Roves Farm will continue to increase its roster of attractions, but its philosophy will never change.

“We entertain and educate and talk to our visitors. There are no push button attractions and there’s no hard sell.”

The farm’s website is www.rovesfarm.co.uk