A PAIR of students studying at a county college have been granted access to one of the UK’s leading soft fruit farms based here in Herefordshire.

The BA (Hons) Photography students at Hereford College of Arts on Folly Lane were given the opportunity to explore the S&A Group’s farm at Marden.

The college says the results were so successful the company plans to invite more HCA students to their farms in the future to work on film and photography projects.

Students Ben Winder and Nathon Milisic both worked on projects at the fruit business, which also specialises in asparagus, during the 2014-15 academic year.

Ben, who graduated in June, won the Lugg Valley Community Engagement Award for his documentary project following the community of the company’s seasonal workers, during leisure time as well as at work.

Nathon is now in the third and final year of his degree course at the Folly Lane campus.

He has been working on an editorial portrait project which saw him photograph workers and interview them, where they talked candidly about their aspirations and ambitions.

“It was fantastic to work on,” said Nathon.

“We were given access to all areas and the people we photographed were really cooperative.

“The team at S&A were so supportive; we held an exhibition at the end of the project at the company, and they even helped to pay for print costs of the photographs.”

S&A held an open day with the exhibition at the forefront, and more than 600 visitors attended and saw the work on show.

“Partnerships like this are incredibly beneficial to our students, and fantastic for the College,” said Alex Thimm, course leader of BA (Hons) Photography.

“We are delighted that S&A found the experience to be as positive as our students did, and we are looking forward to working with them again – this time we may be working on short films as part of the projects.”

Peter Holder, HR Manager at S&A, was delighted that the students were interested in visiting the farm and was extremely impressed by the outcome.

“The two students visited the farm early in the morning, during evenings and at the weekend so that they could capture images of all aspects of life at S&A,” he said.

“They showed enormous dedication to their work and interacted brilliantly with everyone at S&A to create two fascinating photography exhibitions that staff and visitors to the farm have been very impressed with.”

S&A is a third generation business with its main base at Brook Farm in Marden.

John Davies was one of the first pioneers of modern strawberry production in the late 1990’s, when he diversified from potatoes into growing soft fruit.

Each year S&A produces around 7,000 tonnes of British strawberries from 90 hectares of polytunnels and more than 17 hectares of glasshouses.