Ivor Spencer-Thomas

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

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 his 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.

When Spencer-Thomas and his elder brother, Clement, left school they assisted their father on the farm. The family kept dairy cows which are usually milked twice a day. However, they discovered that by milking three times each day at eight-hourly intervals, they were able to increase their yield as the cows benefited from a schedule that was more akin to feeding their calves naturally. In addition to livestock farming, his family grew market garden crops, such as brussels sprouts and peas, which were suited to the light sandy Bedfordshire soil.

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.

...
Wikipedia