THOUGHTS FROM THE FIELD

Arthur Ransome is one of our nation’s favourite authors, writing adventurous tales of derring-do and outdoor hardiness. His tale We Didn’t Mean to Go to Sea was published this week in 1937. Although most readily associated with Lakeland, Ransome based this and three other books in the wilderness of the Broads after the writer moved from the north to Suffolk in 1935.

The Ransome name is an important one in East Anglia. Robert Ransome, a direct forebear of Arthur, was an agricultural engineer of note. He founded a company, based in Ipswich, that was to become the most important manufacturer of farming machinery of the 19th and 20th centuries. The company produced the first commercially available lawnmower powered by a petrol engine and exported its threshing machines worldwide. Sadly, the agricultural implement business was sold to Electrolux in 1989.