JIM COLLINS

CATALOGUE

RECORDING

SUMMARY

BORN: Buckland St Mary, Somerset, 1922

LIVED: Wheddon Cross, Minehead

RECORDING MADE: 2001

RECORDING LENGTH: 3 hours 34 minutes

Jim Collins was 16 when he went into the navy. He retired 25 years later, a Lt-Cdr, having spent 19 of those years in ships, including running Russian convoys in the war. He then became the first Exmoor warden, appointed by Somerset County Council, and spent another 25 years with the National Park. One of the first things he did was open up and waymark 700 miles of bridleways. By 1974 he had 12 men under him, working from his home at Cutcombe. Then the new park authority established itself in Dulverton and his role changed.

He has always loved foxhunting and after he retired from the NPA he spent 10 years as Master of the Minehead Harriers. He has 70 gallons of home made wine stored under his sitting-room; some he produces when they host a meet, some is laid down for his great grandchildren. They don't come to see him, he says, they come to see his horses.

Jim Collins died in January 2018.

Photograph by Mark J. Rattenbury