Beloved farmer passes
By Robert Mangelsdorf
Maple Ridge News
Decked in his white and blue engineer’s cap and dusty overalls, for decades Bill Hampton was a common sight in the fields west of 210th Street and 128th Avenue.
Whether working the field with his team of draught horses, or herding his dairy cattle from pasture to pasture with his beloved border collies, Hampton stayed true to the old ways of farming, providing a living link to the past.
William Thomas Hampton passed away late Monday night with his beloved wife Lil by his side. The cancer he had beaten four years previous had returned and proved to much for this humble caretaker of Maple Ridge’s history.
He was 75 years old.
Long before ribbons of asphalt criss-crossed the Alouette River lowlands, Bill Hampton’s grandfather, the original William Hampton, for whom he was named, tilled the earth in much the same way, and Bill never really did see the need the change.
“A lot of people thought he was Amish,” said long-time neighbour Paul Laity. “He just loved animals.”
The Hampton and Laity families travelled together to Canada from Cornwall, England in 1879, floating their belongings by boat down the Fraser River.
In England, they were miners, and they didn’t want to be miners anymore. On the rolling verdant hillside next to the Alouette River, the families settled side-by-side and began a new life as farmers, and there their descendants live to this day, working the same fields.
And in Bill Hampton’s case, using the same methods.
After all, what sort of companionship could a tractor provide, and there’s no sense in whispering to a baler? Instead, Hampton worked his 75-acre dairy farm with the animals he loved, and enjoyed the simple peace the absence of mechanization provided.
However, in recent years he saw that peace shattered, as the construction of the Abernethy connector cut through the middle of his farm.
The clatter and commotion of the heavy machinery spooked the horses, and the construction left his lower fields all but inaccessible.
He was devastated, and from his bed he wondered aloud what kind of future his farm would have.
“The farm was his life and that’s what he loved,” says Lil.
The pair had only just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Sept. 13.
“It was killing him not being outside with his animals.”
Hampton’s son Dennis took to working the fields in February, honouring his father in doing so, but Lil wonders how long that will last.
To this day, the Hampton Farm has yet to see mechanization.
In addition to Lil and Dennis, Bill Hampton leaves behind his sons Rodney, and Mark, his sister Jean, brother Ray, and his grandchildren Kiah and Makenna.
He is predeceased by his son Barry.
A memorial service will be held Monday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m. at the Maple Ridge Funeral Chapel, 11969 216th St.
Maple Ridge News
Decked in his white and blue engineer’s cap and dusty overalls, for decades Bill Hampton was a common sight in the fields west of 210th Street and 128th Avenue.
Whether working the field with his team of draught horses, or herding his dairy cattle from pasture to pasture with his beloved border collies, Hampton stayed true to the old ways of farming, providing a living link to the past.
William Thomas Hampton passed away late Monday night with his beloved wife Lil by his side. The cancer he had beaten four years previous had returned and proved to much for this humble caretaker of Maple Ridge’s history.
He was 75 years old.
Long before ribbons of asphalt criss-crossed the Alouette River lowlands, Bill Hampton’s grandfather, the original William Hampton, for whom he was named, tilled the earth in much the same way, and Bill never really did see the need the change.
“A lot of people thought he was Amish,” said long-time neighbour Paul Laity. “He just loved animals.”
The Hampton and Laity families travelled together to Canada from Cornwall, England in 1879, floating their belongings by boat down the Fraser River.
In England, they were miners, and they didn’t want to be miners anymore. On the rolling verdant hillside next to the Alouette River, the families settled side-by-side and began a new life as farmers, and there their descendants live to this day, working the same fields.
And in Bill Hampton’s case, using the same methods.
After all, what sort of companionship could a tractor provide, and there’s no sense in whispering to a baler? Instead, Hampton worked his 75-acre dairy farm with the animals he loved, and enjoyed the simple peace the absence of mechanization provided.
However, in recent years he saw that peace shattered, as the construction of the Abernethy connector cut through the middle of his farm.
The clatter and commotion of the heavy machinery spooked the horses, and the construction left his lower fields all but inaccessible.
He was devastated, and from his bed he wondered aloud what kind of future his farm would have.
“The farm was his life and that’s what he loved,” says Lil.
The pair had only just celebrated their 50th wedding anniversary Sept. 13.
“It was killing him not being outside with his animals.”
Hampton’s son Dennis took to working the fields in February, honouring his father in doing so, but Lil wonders how long that will last.
To this day, the Hampton Farm has yet to see mechanization.
In addition to Lil and Dennis, Bill Hampton leaves behind his sons Rodney, and Mark, his sister Jean, brother Ray, and his grandchildren Kiah and Makenna.
He is predeceased by his son Barry.
A memorial service will be held Monday, Nov. 10, at 2 p.m. at the Maple Ridge Funeral Chapel, 11969 216th St.
posted by Robert Mangelsdorf at
12:45 PM
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