1919
Fred returns from the war
Frederick James Bosworth comes home from the Western Front and buys his first pigs. The business has been continuous from that moment on.
Our Story
A century of farming, four generations in.
From Fred Bosworth's return from the First World War to Stuart and Jack today, this is the story of a family business that has spent the last hundred years finding new ways to do the same work better.
1919 Fred Bosworth's first pigs
1934 The family at Spains Hall
IV Generations and counting
Where to begin
FJ Bosworth & Sons is a working farm. It is also, by accident more than design, a family record that runs from the end of the First World War to the present day. Four generations have farmed at Spains Hall under the same name, and each has had to make decisions about what to keep, what to change, and what the next generation might need.
What follows is the abbreviated version. It moves quickly through the early years and slows down where the decisions become more material to the business we run today. We pride ourselves on our heritage and it is incredibly important to us that the role of previous generations is forever acknowledged and appreciated.
The timeline
Four generations at Spains Hall.
A continuous family record from 1919 to now. The years that shaped how we farm today.
First generation · 1919 to mid-1950s
Frederick James Bosworth
Frederick James Bosworth came back from the First World War and bought his first pigs in 1919. He was farming on a small scale, tenant-style, before the family arrived at Spains Hall in 1934. The years between the wars were difficult for British agriculture, and most of what we know about this period is the kind of thing that gets passed down rather than written down.
1934
The family arrives at Spains Hall
The Bosworths take on Spains Hall in Willingale. The farm has been here ever since.
1939 to 1945
The Second World War
British farming reorganises itself around food security. The land at Spains Hall is part of that national effort.
Late 1940s
Mechanisation begins
The post-war years. Fred works to keep the farm in good shape for his sons, as British agriculture starts the slow shift away from horses.
Second generation · Mid-1950s to late 1980s
The post-war farm
The second generation (Frederick Anthony Bosworth (Tony) and Henry John Bosworth) took over from Fred over the course of the 1950s. The post-war years were a period of significant change in British farming: mechanisation accelerated, herd sizes grew, and pig farming in particular professionalised. The farm at Spains Hall grew with that change, building the foundations of what would later become a proper modern operation.
Late 1950s
Tractors replace horses
Mechanisation arrives in earnest. The scale of what one operator can do in a day changes the economics of the farm.
1960s and 70s
The pig operation grows
The herd moves into purpose-built indoor facilities. That was the direction the industry was moving, and it remains the right answer for welfare and biosecurity.
Third generation · 1980s to today
Stuart Bosworth
Stuart Bosworth has been running the farm in its current shape since the 1980s. The decisions that define the modern business were largely made under his watch: the move to proper modern indoor housing for the pigs, the growth of the arable side, the early steps into agricultural contracting for other farmers, and the recognition that came with all of it.
1983
Stuart takes the lead
Arable land grows to 330 hectares. The pig operation moves into modern purpose-built housing. The shape of the present-day business is set.
2011
Farmers Weekly Pig Farmer of the Year
Recognition of decades of work and the standard the herd has reached. The first major industry award for the farm.
2010s
Contracting becomes a business
Other farmers in Essex begin asking whether Stuart's team can do for them what they do at home. The contracting side grows quietly and steadily.
Fourth generation · 2017 to present
Jack Bosworth
Jack Bosworth has come into the business as the fourth generation, joining Stuart in running the farm and taking on a particular focus on the contracting and machinery hire side of the operation. The pace of change has picked up: RTK guidance across the fleet, on-site solar generation for the mill, the acquisition of Procter's Sausages, and a national sustainability award.
2017
Jack joins the business
Jack Bosworth joins the family business as the fourth generation, focusing on contracting and machinery hire as a deliberate growth area for the farm.
2022
Essex Agricultural Society Long Service Award
Three members of the team have been at the farm for more than twenty-five years by this point. Long service is the rule here, not the exception.
2023 and 2024
Precision, fleet, solar
Investment in the contracting fleet accelerates. RTK guidance becomes the standard across every operation. Solar generation is brought online to power the on-site mill.
2024
Procter's Sausages joins the family
FJ Bosworth & Sons acquires Procter's Sausages, the Ipswich-based sausage maker, giving the farm a direct route from its fields to the plates of the people who eat what we produce.
2024
National Pig Awards Sustainable Farming Award
Followed in the same year by finalist places at Pig Producer of the Year and Farmers Weekly Mixed Farm of the Year.
Now
Quietly busy
Continued investment in contracting, ongoing work on the carbon picture of the operation, and the start of a more deliberate conversation with customers and the public about how we farm.
What stays the same
The work, the land, the people.
Across four generations, three things have held: the work itself (pigs, arable, and the operations that go with them), the land at Spains Hall, and the people who have helped run the place. The equipment has changed, the scale has changed, and the questions we are asking about how we farm have changed. The basic shape of the business has not. We think that continuity is worth something, and we are interested in making sure the fifth generation, whoever they are, inherit a farm worth running.
Looking ahead
Where the business is now.
The farm today is doing more of what it has always done, in better-specified ways, with a clearer eye on what the next decade will ask of British farming. The contracting and hire side is growing. The pork story is reaching more people through Procter's. The sustainability work is moving from informal to formal, with proper measurement to back up the model. We are quietly busy, and happy to talk about any of it.
Get in touch
Want to know more?
If you have a question about the family, the farm, the contracting business, or anything else covered above, the easiest way is a quick message.