Friend Sykes

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Friend Sykes (1888–1965) was an English organic farmer and writer who bred livestock and racehorses. In 1935 he bought the Chantry estate near Andover, a poor piece of land that sold for about £4 an acre. He aimed to rebuild its fertility without artificial chemicals, guided by Albert Howard's humus farming. Within a few years the farm produced strong wheat crops and prize-winning horses. Sykes helped found the Soil Association; with Lady Eve Balfour and George Scott Williamson, he organized a founder’s meeting on 12 June 1945 for about a hundred people, and the association started the following year. He is regarded as a founder of the organic movement alongside Howard. His approach valued compost and manure to enrich soil, and with Frank Newman Turner he promoted ploughless cultivation, green manure, organic soil cover, and ley farming. He is sometimes confused with Frank Sykes, another farmer and author for Faber and Faber.