BODHAM, England, Sept. 8 Hedley Thurtle, the oldest farmer in Britain, died at his Norfolk farm at age 102.
Thurtle, who began helping his father when he was 5, witnessed the transition from horse-drawn plows to modern mechanized farming, The Telegraph reported.
His daughter, Elizabeth, told the Norfolk Eastern Daily Press she finally convinced him to stop operating a tractor when he was 97.
"I had a job to stop him driving his veteran tractor but he was always determined to help," she said. "When he got a slight back injury, I thought he ought to stop."
Thurtle's family had been farming near Bodham in northern Norfolk since his grandfather leased 23 acres in the area in 1881. His father bought a 40-acre farm in 1908.
Herbert Parker, whose family company began selling seed corn to Thurtle's father more than a century ago, described him as "a real old country gentleman."
"We have lost our oldest customer," Parker said.
Copyright 2007 by UPI
