Bishop plans to work on farm

Bishop Price and his wife are learning rural ways

A bishop who spent 20 years living in London is spending time on a farm to learn about his rural diocese.

Peter Price, the new bishop of Bath and Wells, and his wife Dee moved to the West Country last May.

The pair are spending a week living and working with Marshall and Diana Taylor on their dairy farm near Taunton in Somerset.

Each day they help bring in 170 cows, assist with the milking and take part in the harvest.

We want to give him a background impression of what farming is like in Somerset

Marshall Taylor

Bishop Price, a 58-year-old former teacher, said he felt the lesson was vital if he was to serve his diocese properly.

"My most recent job has been in London as a bishop and now I've come into a diocese where there's a considerable rural economy and I want to learn about it first hand," he said.

Mr Taylor said: "I don't want to frighten him off, so we're leading him gently into faming.

"We have got some arable and pig farmers to talk about the problems they are facing in the industry and the hopes they've got for the future.

"Generally we want to give him an impression of what farming is like in Somerset."

'Food chain'

Bishop Price said: "What I want to do is to listen to the kind of stories that Marshall has been telling me and putting me in the picture.

"I grew up next to a farm and I had a rather rosy impression of what farming was like.

"But today there are very real difficulties in this industry and unless it faces up to these, it is going to be a very hard time for people.

"I believe one of the most important things we should be doing is trying to shorten the food chain to make the work of the farmer in relating to the community much more relevant."