BERNARD Bedingfield has retired after 40 years with the engineering and building side of the UK pig industry.Mr Bedingfield was a key figure in the development of Woolpit-based Quality Equipment (G E Baker Ltd) and helped farmers with both major and minor projects as far apart as Scotland and Cornwall.
BERNARD Bedingfield has retired after 40 years with the engineering and building side of the UK pig industry.
Mr Bedingfield was a key figure in the development of Woolpit-based Quality Equipment (G E Baker Ltd) and helped farmers with both major and minor projects as far apart as Scotland and Cornwall.
The son of a master butcher, he was born and brought up in Suffolk, although the family originated from Norfolk.
He developed an interest in farming and spent much of his time on his grandfather's mixed farm.
On leaving school, he joined an engineering firm at Bury St Edmunds and on completing a five year mechanical engineering course, became a qualified agricultural engineer.
He was head-hunted by Glyn Baker and joined Quality Equipment in 1968.
“Glyn was the ideas man and liked designing things, while I put them together,” he said.
The firm was involved in general agricultural engineering, and specialisation in pig equipment came about almost by accident when a local farmer called them in to make up some metal slats.
Business took off with the growth of the pig industry in the 1960s and 70s.
Mr Bedingfield was a director until 1994 and at one stage over 40 people were employed at its headquarters.
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