Although new Guild member Janet Richardson does not come from a farming background, her interest in agriculture dates back to her first job in the office of a large Lincolnshire farming estate, which followed a course in secretarial training at Grimsby College in the late 1960s.
“I also had spells on a local dairy farm and a Norfolk turkey farm between looking after horses in both counties and Rutland,” says Janet. “However, I changed direction and trained as a journalist with the former Lincolnshire Standard Group before specialising on the farming and features desk.”
After marriage and a move to Horncastle, Janet worked as a clerk at the Lincoln Red Cattle Society before it moved to the Lincolnshire Showground. She then returned to full-time journalism with the Mortons’ group of local newspapers in the late 1980s while her daughter was at junior school.
“When the papers were sold to Johnston Press I went with them for five years before returning to the subs desk at Mortons Media in 2006,” recalls Janet. “Within a few months I had taken over the editorship of Wright’s Farming Register, as well as becoming a production editor with the company’s heritage and lifestyle titles.”
Although she continues to edit Wright’s Farming Register, her main role for the past two years has been editor of the inland waterways newspaper Towpath Talk.
“My spare time is taken up helping with my grandchildren – my daughter is also now a working mum!,” notes Janet. “Membership of the Rotary Club of Horncastle and being a primary school governor at Tetford in the heart of the Lincolnshire Wolds also take up time when I’m not working.”
