Percy Thrower

A statue of Percy Thrower in the Dingle gardens of The Quarry, Shrewsbury, Shropshire.

Percy Thrower MBE (30 January 1913 - 18 March 1988) was a British gardener. The name Thrower means someone who twists the fibre - properly wool - into thread or yarn. This term is peculiar to East Anglia where Percy’s father worked as a gardener at Bawdsey Manor before moving to Horwood House as head gardener. Percy presented various gardening programmes, starting in 1956 on the BBC's Gardening Club then later on the BBC's Gardeners' World from 1969 until 1976. He was also the gardener on the children's programme Blue Peter from 1974 until 1987, appearing in over 100 broadcasts. This made him the longest-serving "Blue Peter" gardener. He is affectionately referred to as 'Percy Chucker' by Alan Titchmarsh, who credits Percy with inspiring him to take up gardening.

Percy Thrower was determined from an early age to be a head gardener like his father, and worked under him at Horwood House, near Milton Keynes in Buckinghamshire for the first four years after leaving school. He then became a journeyman gardener in 1931 at the age of 18 at the Royal Gardens at Windsor Castle, on £1 a week. He lived in the bothy at Windsor, which was allegedly the best bothy the UK, along with 20 other improver gardeners and disabled ex service men who were employed on full wages. One curious fact was that the bothy only housed single men and if you “had” to get married you lost your job. He spent a valuable five years there under the head gardener, C.H. Cook, who was subsequently to become his father-in-law. It was here that he learnt to swim in the river Thames. Percy left Windsor, (he was earning thirty five shillings at the time,) on the 1 August 1935 for the City of Leeds Parks department as a journeyman, where he passed the Royal Horticultural Society’s General exam. In 1937 he moved to Derby Parks Department, again as a journeyman. Whilst at Derby, he was promoted to be a foreman, General Foreman and finally the Assistant Parks Superintendent. In was here that Percy met the man whom he considered to be the best gardener he ever worked under and that was John Maxfield : unfortunately Maxfield died a couple of years later, but he still remained a large influence on Percy. Percy studied and passed the National Diploma in Horticulture (N.D.H.), but only at the second attempt, the first failure being put down to a sleepless night because an air raid in London, where the exam took place. Not only was he a student at the Derby Technical College but he also became a lecturer.

He became engaged to Connie Cook(Constance Margaret Ina), the daughter of Charles Cook, who was now the head gardener at Sandringham, having moved from Windsor. Things had not gone well for Charles Cook at Windsor, where Edward VIII and Mrs Simpson had interfered with the running of the gardens. In order to help him, Queen Mary, who was now in residence at Sandringham after the death of her husband George V, instigated his moving from Windsor to Sandringham. Percy was married at Sandringham on 9th September 1939 just after World War II broke out, and the couple received a wedding gift from Queen Mary of a set of Burslem china dishes, which they treasured for over 50 years. Harry Thrower, Percy's father, died on the 31 December 1939. Percy became a special constable on fire-watching duties and was a leading light in the “Dig for Victory” campaign. It was whilst at Derby that Percy had a football pools win of £52 which enabled him to buy his first motor car which was a Morris Eight which he paid £45 minus £2 for a dud battery. He subsequently sold this car in 1947 for £230 10s, when he moved on to a Morris Ten. His final move was to Shrewsbury, as the Parks Superintendent on 1st January 1946, becoming the youngest parks superintendent. His salary there was £300 per year, with £20 for light and fuel, however all this was soon increased substantially. Percy had a staff of about 35. He only expected to stay four or five years but things were to turn out differently and in fact he was in post until 1974. He had reached the top of his profession at just thirty-two years of age and it was his sole ambition in life.

In 1951 Percy was asked to design a garden in Berlin on the lines of an English garden on behalf of the Shropshire Horticultural Society, and he did this with the Berlin superintendent of parks Herr Witte. Anthony Eden opened the garden in May 1952. Percy made his first TV appearance in 1951 in a programme about this garden; the programme was called Picture Page. He began his broadcasting career in a Midland regional programme called "Beyond the Back Door" and for many years was the face and voice of British gardening on television and radio.

The first TV series with which he was associated was called Country Calendar, the next being Out and About. When colour television came along this programme was renamed Gardeners' World.

In 1963 Percy built his own house at Shrewsbury, called The Magnolias, on land he acquired with a friend just outside the village of Bomere Heath six miles north west of Shrewsbury. This gave him a garden of about one and a half acres to “play with”, something which he had never had before. It was here that the stray lilacpoint Siamese kitten subsequently named Ming adopted the Throwers after being found under the cattle grid. This garden subsequently became the location for the shooting some of the episodes of Gardeners' World. He opened the garden to the public in 1966 and this became an annual event to raise money for charity. It also caused many a traffic jam. It was about this time that Clacks Farm came onto the scene and the owner Arthur Billitt more or less formed a double act in Gardeners' World, the shooting of the programme being shared between the two locations.

It was in 1967 that Percy became involved with the development of what was one of the first garden centres. This was Syon Park, near Brentwood, owned by the Duke of Northumberland and backed by Plant Protector, a division of ICI, who had leased 50 acres from the Duke. The Queen Mother opened the centre in June 1968 accompanied by Percy. The centre was a success at first but then sales tailed off and Percy’s was convinced that it was because there were too many managers so he left the project but was not put off setting up his own garden centre.

In 1970 Percy went into partnership with Duncan Murphy when they bought the firm of Murrells of Shrewsbury and turned it into the Percy Thrower Garden Centre. When Duncan left the partnership some years later his daughters took his place. Percy always had a constant companion and that was a black Labrador of which he had several in succession, which was something that he always wanted to have since he went duck shooting with his maternal grandfather, who had a black Labrador as a gun dog. Dogs were even welcome in his garden centre.

He retired in 1974 from the post Superintendent of Parks as Shrewsbury and started a weekly column for the Daily Mail in 1975. He also wrote for several other papers, notably The Daily Express and The Sunday Express. He wrote for the magazine Amateur Gardening and also wrote many books, which were published by Collingbridge and later Hamlyn who acquired Collingbridge.

The BBC summarily dropped Percy when in 1975 he agreed to a contract with Plant Products, a subsidiary of ICI, for a series of commercials. He did this in the full knowledge of what the repercussions would be with the BBC and later said it was the best contract he ever signed. It left a hole it Gardeners World and the programme took a long time to recover.

Thrower has been described as "Britain's first celebrity gardener".

Percy admitted to one hobby apart from pipe smoking and that was shooting. He appeared with Morecambe and Wise(1971) and Benny Hill : for the latter appearance he received a fee of £30.

In 1976 he gave a lecture to the Royal Institution titled “Changing Fashions in Gardening" and in 1977 he wrote his memoirs, titled “My Lifetime of Gardening”. The same year the Royal Horticultural Society awarded their highest honour to Percy, which was the Victoria Medal of Honour, something that even Charles Cook did not receive. He was also the subject of "This is Your Life" programme in this year. He was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) in 1984. Percy was involved in gardening tours. These took people on cruises and flights to places of agricultural interest. They would go to places like Holland or the Caribbean and Percy would give appropriate talks. He was also involved in English Gardening Weekends for the more affluent types and it was during one of these weekends that he did not feel at all well. It was the start of a decline in his health and eventually Hodgkin’s disease was discovered. He made his last recording for Blue Peter from hospital just a week before he died on the 18 March 1988.

Percy and Connie had three daughters: - Margaret born 1944, Susan born 1948, Ann born 1952. They were all involved with the Percy Thrower garden centre.

Percy left £600,000 when he died which was quite amazing for a man who started life with virtually nothing. The money did not come from the BBC, whose fees were derisory, but they were paramount in making him a national figure.

References

• Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. Oxford University Press. 2004. {{cite encyclopedia}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |title= (help)
• A personal meeting with Percy Thrower by User:Deben Dave around 1987.
• My Lifetime of Gardening - Percy Thrower
• Percy Thrower: a biography - Timothy O'Sullivan