Editor’s Note: Mr Harrap caught my eye on Twitter before Christmas, when he tweeted a question about Bridport not seeming very busy. He described himself as a “nomad in the cheese industry” and I thought, what’s going on here then? I was intrigued by the unusual combination of those two words “cheese” and “nomad” – and by the idea of such a figure wandering around Bridport – so last week, when I saw that he was heading off to Denmark, I asked Mr Harrap to tell us more.

I had another reason too. One of the most under-reported aspects of West Dorset’s economic and cultural life is the number of people who regularly head out from its small towns and villages to work much further afield. It’s a factor that’s had a significant effect on the housing market of West Dorset – and, behind the scenes, on policies affecting the building of new housing. So, I was curious to hear an unvarnished account of how someone came to live in West Dorset but work across the world. And this (lightly edited) is what Mr Harrap wrote…

Tim Harrap

JONATHAN HUDSTON at Real West Dorset has been following me on Twitter and he challenged me to explain my biographical comment: “Nomad in the cheese industry”! Fair enough, such cryptic devices do need teasing out at times.

Wikipedia thankfully defines three types of nomads, the last being: “Peripatetic nomads, who offer the skills of a craft or trade to those they travel among… [they are] most common in industrialized nations.” That will satisfy our needs during the following.

In the 1970s I left school only to find the oil crisis of 1973-74 making life in the UK uninspiring. So, I took off around the world, travelling for eight years, working in oil and mineral exploration in Australia, Asia, Africa and Europe. This was my introduction to a nomadic lifestyle, and I wasn’t the only one; there were and still are plenty of folk moving around the planet for work.

For a brief time I found myself milking cows on a kibbutz in Israel, the milk going to the local cheese factory. Little did I know such a seed of an experience would return to flower later in life!

After undertaking a course at the University of East Anglia in Development Studies, (an academic version of nomadism if ever there was one!), and doing a post-graduate research degree on farm forestry, it was time to settle the “yurt” in one place with a wife and young family.

Sadly the recession of 1990-91 hit hard and work was difficult to find. My partner and I decided to up sticks, “retire” to Dorset and allow fate to take its course. Read more