Inside Salisbury: Reflections on farming, nature and that MBE

Interview with Peter Thompson - the pet magpie, agronomy and future-proofing farming

by Annette J Beveridge

WITH farming in the news recently, our interview is timely because Peter Thompson worked as an agronomist for many years helping farmers to improve their soil, to reap greater rewards while also, farming with nature. He was also nominated for an MBE.

Peter lives in Barford St Martin with his wife Morag and is Chair of the Salisbury and District Natural History Society.

In his words, the “MBE was a massive surprise’”.

Peter, 69, said: “It was completely out of the blue. I literally got a letter through the post and it had a crest on it. I read it and it said I had been put forward for an MBE. It didn’t say I had got it. But other people told me it was sort of a done deal.”

Peter’s role as an agronomist took him onto farmlands where he helped to improve soil quality, nutrients and organic farming. It was one of the first farms he had worked on, which led to his nomination for the MBE.

Peter told Inside Salisbury that he was really touched by this.

Peter said: “How lovely that he gave up his time. It was a really lovely surprise and I absolutely knew nothing. “

Peter will go to Buckingham Palace on Tuesday, February 18, 2025.

School

As a seven-year-old, Peter was sent away to Boarding School. It was a family tradition but, unlike many children, Peter loved his time there.

He said: “There were bits which were tough, especially when you first arrive in a place. When I went to secondary school, everyone knew each other, and I didn’t know a soul. But I loved it, I played lots of sports, but academically, I came out with not a lot.

“I was 100% an outdoors person. Ever since I can remember, I had pots of things hatching, and pupating, like a mini Gerald Durrell.”

Having adopted two birds during his school years, including a pet jackdaw and a magpie called Squittas.

The magpie was very well known because (he pooped) over the Head of House’s English essay on day two.

Peter said: “He would only come to me. I learned an awful lot about Corvids in general. He would fly into the noisy dining area, and onto the middle of the table and get the butter pats. He was addicted to them.”

“The teachers would shout, ‘Get that bloody bird out of here’.”

The jackdaw was sickly when he found it. Peter rescued it and looked after it.

He said: “I always tell the story of when I was playing in a cricket match one day and went to bat. My jackdaw Amy flew out, and landed on the stumps and knocked the bales off. So, I was nearly called out as stumped by Jack Daw.”

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Agronomy

Peter admitted that he didn’t really know what he wanted to do when he left school so took on different jobs. It was only when his friends began to leave after completing their university degrees that he thought he should go and get a proper job.

Agronomy is the science of farming including studying the soil, plants, and animals.

Peter said: “I just knew I wanted to do something outside. But they were only taking on people who had degrees. So I asked them why and said even with a degree in maths, someone still has to work from scratch.”

Peter talked his way into the job.

Peter said: “Over a three-year-period, I was going out with agronomists and had to sit all the exams. I got in at a fantastic time. Right at the beginning. Whenever you got to do something on a farm, it really was for the first time. I loved it. You worked hard because of the exams and learned about everything - pesticides, organic farming, trace elements in soil, and the nutrients that plants need.”

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Farmers are working more for nature now but Peter recalls the time when a lot of damage was done.

He said: “I trained in the 80s and already then, [at] the Fen soils, they were putting steps up to houses that had been built because the soil had dried out. I remember they had all the drilling going on in the Fens and the wind blew at the wrong time, all this black soil was blowing everywhere.

“Farmers had been ripping hedges out, which they had been told to and paid to do by the government. It started with the Dig for Britain straight after the war. I honestly don’t think we realised what we were doing.”

Peter was studying hard but realised that he wanted to use his farming expertise and move into conservational farming. He got a job with the Game Conservancy (now called the Game and Wildlife Conservancy).

Working with nature

Since the 1930s, the UK has lost most of its wildflower meadow habitats. Now there is only about 1% of meadow habitat left.

Peter said: “Look at a county like Wiltshire, and it must have been stunning. It would have been like Salisbury Plain everywhere.”

Peter is Chair of the Salisbury & District Natural History Society and farming alongside nature is important to him.

He said: “The green side of it is now centre-stage. Everything they are doing….reducing pesticide use or going to organic farming, or taking the best bits of organic farming, there is a massive change.

Peter said: “I hear them say now, ‘I used to just walk around and look at my wheat, oil seed rape and my barley, now I am counting my corn buntings.’”

“They have apps now, and are sending photos to each other saying look at the butterfly I have just seen.”

Peter thinks there is a hunger to learn more.