Brothers leave city jobs to join family trade
Twenty five year old Stephen Mace from St Olaves is the youngest member of the Broads Reed and Sedge Cutters Association. A fourth generation reed cutter, he went into partnership with his brother Paul after taking voluntary redundancy from Lotus cars to work in an outdoor environment.
“I could see that the industry had a brighter future than it has had for several years,” he said.The brothers cut the reed fringes of the wild Haddiscoe Island, surrounded by the Rivers Yare, Waveney and Haddiscoe Cut, alongside their 74 year old grandfather, Bob, who has been a marshman on the island for the last 55 years.
Bob Mace, whose father and father-in-law were both reed cutters, was awarded a long service award at the Royal Norfolk Show in 2003, for his work on the Island. Several years previously, he was awarded the British Empire Medal for his part in discovering copper deficiency in cattle that grazed on the Island. The Mace brothers’ father, Brian, is also a marshman on the island.
Paul Mace, 32, took up reed cutting after doing a career u-turn. With a business degree under his belt, he was running a team of 14 in the accounts department of Jewsons at Cringleford. He chose redundancy when the company relocated to Huddersfield, and after travelling, made the decision four years ago to return to his roots and work in the great outdoors.
Paul is able to use his business skills as the Broads Reed and Sedge Cutters Association’s treasurer and secretary alongside a role in project management. He is writing the text for the Association’s new website, and does some accounting for the other reed cutters. He says the drop in salary is worth every penny for a more rewarding quality of life.
“I enjoy the peace and tranquillity of working in the Broads and I do not miss the stresses involved with deadlines, sitting in traffic and a city job, although reedcutting inevitably has its own pressures caused mostly by the weather. We work seven days a week through the cutting season from December to the end of March when the weather is good, and only have a short break for lunch. But you can’t put a price on enjoying your work as long as you can pay the bills. Having a lot more disposable income isn’t the be all and end all of life.”
21/02/2005
