Last updated August 2023.Harry Thorpe was a Professor of Human Geography at the University of Birmingham, where he spent his career.
Sheila Jones kindly provided me with some detail, including his first name. She said he was very supportive of her when she became President the following year. This also led me to a few other additions which has fleshed out the entry for Professor Thorpe.
Harry was born in Chesterfield, and went to Chesterfield Grammar School and then went to Durham University where he won their Maltby Prize as an undergraduate. As with many geographers at the time, he saw service in the war, and it's also good to see that he spent time as a school teacher at Accrington Grammar School, prior to the war.
In 1969, Professor Thorpe became the second chair of Geography at the University of Birmingham.
He made a particular study of Rural Settlements, and contributed chapters to a number of texts. I love the opening paragraph to this chapter to explain why places are different.
Professor Thorpe also wrote other books on this theme.
Harry Thorpe was also involved in a government review of allotment ownership. A specific area to be interested in, but allotments have proved their worth for many during lockdown.
The decline in allotments led to a Government review of allotment provision in the UK chaired by Harry Thorpe, Professor of Geography at the University of Birmingham. Thorpe and his committee were responsible for establishing a new vision for post-war allotment provision, a radical shake-up with allotments to be seen as a rewarding, leisurely recreational activity.
From this University of Birmingham page.
Harry was born in Chesterfield, and went to Chesterfield Grammar School and then went to Durham University where he won their Maltby Prize as an undergraduate. As with many geographers at the time, he saw service in the war, and it's also good to see that he spent time as a school teacher at Accrington Grammar School, prior to the war.
In 1969, Professor Thorpe became the second chair of Geography at the University of Birmingham.
He made a particular study of Rural Settlements, and contributed chapters to a number of texts. I love the opening paragraph to this chapter to explain why places are different.
Professor Thorpe also wrote other books on this theme.
Harry Thorpe was also involved in a government review of allotment ownership. A specific area to be interested in, but allotments have proved their worth for many during lockdown.
The decline in allotments led to a Government review of allotment provision in the UK chaired by Harry Thorpe, Professor of Geography at the University of Birmingham. Thorpe and his committee were responsible for establishing a new vision for post-war allotment provision, a radical shake-up with allotments to be seen as a rewarding, leisurely recreational activity.
From this University of Birmingham page.
As part of the ‘Dig for Victory’ and ‘Grow More Food’ campaigns, allotment holding had peaked during World War II to 1,452,000 plots over 143,000 acres in England and Wales. War time regulations regarding allotments had ended by 1950. The rise of the affluent society, the TV set and the motor car all contributed to the immediate post war down turn in allotments.
During the 1950s and 1960s allotments went into decline as people sought to buy their food from the new supermarkets and convenience stores rather than grow their own. The national decline led to a Government review of allotment provision in the UK chaired by Harry Thorpe, Professor of Geography at The University of Birmingham. Thorpe and his committee were responsible for establishing a new vision for post-war allotment provision in England and Wales Alison Smith wrote this account, which has some references to Professor Thorpe.
At this time, as for most of the GA's history, the President was only involved for the one year, rather than the current structure which is that they serve as Junior Vice, Vice and Past Presidents either side of their Presidential year.
He was the Chairman of the GA's Birmingham Branch from 1953, making it one of the largest in the country. He was also President of the Worcester Branch, one of several that I have had the pleasure of speaking at.
He sadly died unexpectedly, following a protracted illness in February 1977, aged 64.
He was awarded the OBE for his services to allotments the previous year. I often think of Harry when I see a good set of allotments.
His obituary was published in 'Geography' and written by Gordon Warwick.
This provided a range of useful additional information on Harry's work for the GA as well.
References
No Wikipedia entry
Cadbury's: https://theironroom.wordpress.com/2013/01/15/allotments-then-and-now/ - source of the image.
Image: Prof Harry Thorpe. Courtesy of Cadbury Research Library: Special Collections, University of Birmingham [UA10/10]
https://www.birmingham.gov.uk/directory_record/182654/harry_thorpe_professor_of_geography_at_the_university_of_birmingham
Obituary:
Warwick, Gordon T. “Obituary: HARRY THORPE, 1913-1977.” Geography, vol. 62, no. 3, 1977, pp. 222–223. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/40568739. Accessed 20 July 2020.
If anyone knows any more about Professor Thorpe, please get in touch - this is a rather brief entry.
Updated November 2020
I followed a lead to his work on allotments - he was described by one person as the 'Beeching' of allotments because of his work on them which led to some disappearing ultimately...
This has a biography:
Harry Thorpe was born in Derbyshire in 1913 and was educated at Chesterfield Grammar School and Bede College, Durham. He was awarded a first class honours degree and the Maltby Prize. He was a demonstrator at Durham from 1933 to 1936 and began work on the historical geography of the county with particular reference to rural settlement. He gained an MLitt degree but his research was interrupted by the outbreak of war in 1939. He worked as a schoolteacher in Accrington for a short time, before being called up to the Royal Engineers. He served in the Geographical Section of the General Staff, later the Directorate of Military Survey, and in Sri Lanka, India, and Burma. He ended the war as Major, and gained a technical grasp of the map making process which helped him in his command, after the war, of a Territorial Army Squadron in Birmingham.
In 1946 he was chosen by R. H. Kinvig to be his senior assistant in the development and expansion of the department of geography at the University of Birmingham and he remained there for the rest of his career. He was appointed senior lecturer in 1951, reader in 1954, and professor in 1964. He was Head of Department from 1971. He continued his work in historical geography and gave special attention to the problems presented by rural settlement forms in the British Isles, undertaking comparative studies of rural settlement forms in north-west Europe, particularly Denmark. He also carried out research into the historical geography of settlement in the West Midlands and made studies of patterns of land use in Birmingham, Lichfield and Wormleighton. He worked with P. D. A Harvey on printed maps of Warwickshire.
He was President of the Birmingham and Warwickshire Archaeological Society 1974-1976, and served as president of both the Birmingham and Worcester branches of the Geographical Association. He was president of the national Association from 1974-1975.
In the mid 1960s he was asked to serve as Chairman of a Departmental Committee in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to inquire into the state of allotments and to suggest changes in policy. Many of the suggestions made in the Report were adopted. He continued this work and became recognised as a leading advocate in the campaign to transform the allotment into the 'leisure garden'.
In the mid 1960s he was asked to serve as Chairman of a Departmental Committee in the Ministry of Housing and Local Government to inquire into the state of allotments and to suggest changes in policy. Many of the suggestions made in the Report were adopted. He continued this work and became recognised as a leading advocate in the campaign to transform the allotment into the 'leisure garden'.
He was President of the National Society of Leisure Gardeners from 1970-1976, and President of the International Federation of Leisure Gardeners in 1974.
He was awarded an OBE for his services in 1976.
He first became ill in 1976 and died on 14 February 1977
http://calmview.bham.ac.uk/GetDocument.ashx?db=Catalog&fname=US137+Papers+of+Harry+Thorpe.pdf - PDF download
Source: Obituary in The Geographical Journal, Vol 143, No. 2 July 1977 pp.364-365 http://www.jstor.org/stable/1795950 accessed December 2012
Updated August 2023
Princess Alice Mountbatten at the Int’l Leisure Gardeners Congress in Birmingham 1976 org by Prof Harry Thorpe @GeogBham with Denis Howell MP 🌹Minister of Sport Recreation & Drought - see Moor Green show @moseleyhistory https://t.co/7WBYsVGjPl 🧩@BDAC_allotments @moseleyinbloom https://t.co/UaDJBh9ZSH pic.twitter.com/s77c30G3gn
— Peoples Park friends (@cannonhillpark) March 13, 2021
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