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Mr Jackson takes time off to read his congratulatory telegrams sent in by well-wishers.

The New Year has brought pride and happiness to a trio of people in Burnley and district. They have been singled out for awards in the New Year honours list and have had the spotlight of publicity turned on them after years of unstinting work in their own particular fields. Fittingly women take the bulk of local honours and not least among them is housewife Mrs Hazel Bates, of Hufling Lane, who receives the British Empire Medal for her work with the parents' committee of the Burnley Sea Cadets. Mrs Marjory Maw, of Abbeyfields, Whalley, has also received recognition in the form of an MBE after years of unstinting work for hospital voluntary service. Burnley farmer Mr Jim Jackson, of Crow Wood House Farm, Burnley, has been made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire after playing a vital role in the agricultural industry.

Burnley farmer Mr James Jackson was delighted by the recognition of many years’ work for the farming industry. Mr Jackson was born at Great Eccleston, near Blackpool, where his wife was also born, and where they went to the same school. He began farming 26 acres at the age of 23, having left school at 13 and buying his first heifer when he was 15. After six years farming on his own behalf, he heard from a friend in Cleveleys that Crow Wood farm, Burnley, was changing hands and he negotiated with the outgoing tenant - a Mr Joe Jackson, offering £2,025 as an ingoing valuation. When he was accepted as tenant by the estate owners he moved into Crow Wood in November 1948. His own enterprise was built up by consistent hard work and study and implementation of farming techniques, so he and his family have increased the Crow Wood milk yield from 50 to 800 gallons a day. And with his sons David and John, he also runs farms in Cliviger and Vale of York. Altogether they farm around 800 acres with around 900 pedigree Holstein and Jersey milk cows. The Jacksons' enterprise is built on modern dairy farming methods, maximising the output with a minimum of labour to achieve an exceptionally high degree of productivity. But, although reasons for New Year honours are not spelled out, it is likely that Mr Jackson's elevation to the order of CBE is in recognition of his national-level service to the dairy industry.
He began by becoming Burnley branch delegate to the county NFU branch at Preston, of which he was chairman for five or six years. He was also elected chairman of the County Producer Retailers' Committee and became their delegate to the national body, meeting in London. He became vice chairman of the Milk Marketing Board in 1958, a position he held for 17 years, and was made a chairman of the National Milk Publicity Council and a director of the Quality Milk Producers (on behalf of Channel Island farmers). During the past two decade he has been a member of numerous farming delegations to many parts of the world, including Russia, Poland, Canada and the USA, as well as many EEC countries. Last week, before the intimation of the CBE, Lancashire farmers paid tribute to Mr Jackson's service at the NFU county ball in Blackpool, when he was presented with a grandfather clock from farmers throughout the county.