Ivor Spencer-Thomas

Ivor Spencer-Thomas was born on 11 April 1907 and died on 30 August 2001. While his contribution to rural life reflects much of what has happened all over Britain during the twentieth century, his impact on the village of Braughing in Hertfordshire, England, during the economic depression of the 1930s was unique. He was an inveterate inventor and improviser, always in the forefront of developing agriculture and market gardening as a commercial enterprise. He was married to Rosabel and they had two children, Owen and Rosemary.

=Biography=

Early years

Spencer-Thomas was born into an agricultural family in Llanymynech, Powys, on the Welsh-English border, where his father, Robert, was a sheep farmer. He was the youngest of three children. While he was still a young child the family moved to Honeydon, Bedfordshire. At the age of five, he began boarding at Christ Church Cathedral Choir School, Oxford, and became a chorister at the Cathedral, singing alongside distinguished musicians, such as the eminent English composer, William Walton. [ [http://www.chch.ox.ac.uk/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=249&Itemid=381] Christ Church Cathedral Choir official website. Accessed August 6, 2007]

Farming

In 1934 Spencer-Thomas moved to Braughing, Hertfordshire, where he brought prosperity and employment to the village during the great depression in the thirties by introducing a more intensive form of agriculture and developing a system of piece work, paying his workers by the quantity of work they achieved rather than the time spent. His workers were able to earn up to three or four times the minimum agricultural wage.

Unlike other local farmers he grew market garden crops, such as peas and brussels sprouts in addition to the more traditional heavy-soil crops, such as wheat and potatoes.

His farm was the major local employer, with over thirty men working full-time. This figure increased into many hundreds during the pea-picking season with some itinerant workers joining the men and women from the village. His local produce, strawberries, carrots, peas, cabbages, brussels sprouts and lettuces, was conveyed by lorry to the London fruit and vegetable markets, such as Covent Garden, now based at Nine Elms, and Borough Market, as well as the former Stratford market and Spitalfields wholesale market which moved to Leyton in 1991.

Parsnips were sent by special rail-wagon direct to the catering industry in different parts of the country. Again, it was highly unusual for this crop to be grown in a heavy soil, but Spencer-Thomas designed his own parsnip lifter and harvester mounted on a Fordson Major half-track tractor which could harvest the crop in the most difficult frosty conditions. [ [http://www.btinternet.com/~owenst/IvorSpencer-Thomas.html] Official website. URL accessed August 14, 2007.]

Spencer-Thomas was an active member of the National Farmers' Union and attended executive meetings regularly until months before he died at the age of 94. [ [http://www.nfuonline.com/x117.xml] National Farmers' Union website, East Anglia. URL accessed February 8, 2008.]

Inventions

One of his inventions was "FizzIt", a means of making sparkling wine from still wine. He also developed "Cham-Cham", a polythene packet that generated carbon dioxide and put the fizz into water and other still drinks. Spencer-Thomas developed a control system for robotic arms, which enabled the simple operation of a finger and thumb. The control unit was developed out of an earlier invention for pneumatically opening doors and farm gates. [ [http://www.braughing.org.uk/content/view/78/113/] Braughing Community Website. URL accessed March 8, 2008]

He was one of the first farmers in Britain to build a plant for washing and freezing vegetables on site. These were sealed into large packs and marketed under the trade name "Froveg" and supplied to wholesale markets in catering and hotels. [ [http://www.braughing.org.uk/content/view/78/113/] Braughing Community Website. URL accessed May 31, 2007.]

Spencer-Thomas was one of the first people to develop inflatable polythene greenhouses which traded under the name, "Sky Hooks". These polythene igloos were inflated by strong 12 inch electric fan heaters. These generated enough pressure to keep the igloo, which was secured by netting, rigid.

He used the polethene greenhouses successfully to extend the season of strawberries and vegetables. He developed the idea commercially and extended it for other uses, such as conserving the warmth in outdoor swimming pools. The London football club, Tottenham Hotspur, under Bill Nicholson's management, purchased his system in 1962 to keep their football pitch snow-free and prevent it from freezing in the winter.

Later life

Spencer-Thomas held the feudal barony of Buquhollie and Freswick in Caithness, Scotland. [ [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_feudal_baronies] Wikipedia. URL accessed May 31, 2007.] He was buried on his estate close to John O'Groats, Scotland, alongside his wife who had died almost three years earlier.

References