A stalwart of farming in the south west has passed away.

Charles (Charlie) Honey died last month after a short illness, aged 77.

Charlie was the third son of regular Farmer’s Weekly columnist Babs Honey, whose diaries about family life on a Somerset farm were so popular in the sixties and seventies.

After Shuttleworth College, Charlie started his farming on the family farm at Midford, Bath before winning a tenancy on the Tortworth Estate at Charfield, Wotton Under Edge.

He ran a successful pedigree dairy herd and arable unit, before converting to South Devon sucklers and arable.

An active NFU member, he served as Gloucestershire County Chairman and had regular farming slots on local radio station GWR with Jenny Stewart and on BBC Radio Gloucestershire. 

After retiring from farming he moved to Herefordshire and took up a new career with Agri-Lloyd.

Charlie leaves two sons, two daughters, and eight grandchildren.

He is also survived by the remaining six Honey brothers and a sister, who with their father Dick, were the subject of Babs Honey’s diaries.