Offspring

When I was growing up on the farm, Bamford bailers, of which we had one, were regarded as the gold standard. Manufactured by a long-standing engineering family in neighbouring Staffordshire, they were used to tie hay or straw into regular oblong bundles, wrapped with two strands of sizal twine. I remember the complexity of the 'knotters' that knotted each strand of twine. Adjusting them to ensure their reliability was akin to tuning a violin - both skills I never mastered

In 1945 a scion of the Bamford family, Joseph Cyril, was told, not for the first time, that he would not amount to much and had no future in the family business. In response, he rented a lock-up in Uttoxeter, bought a (then cutting-edge) electric welding machine, and began manufacturing innovative machines based on the latest technological innovations. In 1950 he moved his now successful company, JCB, to Rocester

In the 1950s he began painting all his machines yellow and introduced the 'backhoe loader' - the yellow digger was born. Joseph fancied himself as a later-day version of his namesake Rowntree: he paid high wages, provided many employment benefits and built housing for his employees, while fiercely opposing unionisation. The labour productivity of his factories was many multiples of comparable businesses, and the company was, and still is, phenomenally successful

In character, he perhaps better resembled more recent entrepreneurs, like Alan Sugar or Richard Branson, a showman with an eye for a marketing gimmick or a publicity stunt. The dancing diggers of many a country show was his idea. Personally, however, he was an ascetic, parsimonious workaholic. In 1975, aged 59, he left his wife of 34 years, retired to Switzerland with his secretary, and handed his business to his two sons

Anthony Bamford, then 30 - born on the day JCB started trading, became Chair and Managing Director, and remains so. He is now a multi-billionaire (ten billion, give or take a digger or two). He is an exceptionally generous donor to the Conservative party, especially during election campaigns, particularly the Brexit election in 2019 (almost £4m). He also donated money to the vote leave campaign. He was made a member of the House of Lords by prime minister Cameron

Anthony's wife, Carole, is an entrepreneur in her own right, founding a 'women's products' brand and what is sometimes called a farm shop, and sometimes Harrods-on-the-Wolds. It is at Daylesford, near to us, and the go-to destination for moneyed Londoners with second homes in the leafiest corners of the Cotswolds. That said, its cafe serves decent tea and coffee and large slices of cake at above average, but not outrageous, prices (unlike the shop itself, where the price-tags are pure comedy)

The perspective somewhat masks the distinction in size between these two, unfortunately, but I couldn't find a better angle. The difference is extreme; my reaction on seeing them was that the mother must have calved in the night. The amateur lens flare is to prove my credentials as an amateur