Farming Parson Farming Son: A Journey from Leeds Workhouse, to West Wales, to Rural Worcestershire, Then East Kent and Beyond

Robert Thomas, Bob to his work colleagues, was brought up in rural Worcestershire, where his father was a parish priest and part-time small farmer. Educated on Exmoor and Shropshire where his academic skills were disappointing, he left school at sixteen.

He learnt his growing skills with JF Bomford Ltd in the Vale of Evesham; then in his late twenties he moved to Nackington Farms, a fruit, hops, sheep and arable farm in East Kent.

Together with Howard Carr and Lord Northbourne he set up Kent Salads to develop iceberg lettuce production in the UK, followed by washed and prepared salads for the supermarkets. Moving on, he set up Intercrop Ltd, producing some thirty plus crops, and two years later Intercrop Iberica, a similar growing operation in south-east Spain.

Robert’s job intertwined with the highs and lows of family life, the people he met and the discovery of a grandmother from a workhouse in Leeds make a fascinating and moving story.