Meet our Chairman from 1999-2011
Continuing our celebration of 75 years of British Wool, Graze recently met with Frank Langrish FRAgS, who was Chairman for 12 years between 1999 and 2011.
Tell us about yourself:
I am a partner in a family farm running around 4,000 Romney ewes and over 400 cattle. The sheep and cattle run on a low-input lowland grazing system, with the sheep being mostly Romney or Romney crosses, and the cattle are a suckler herd of pedigree Sussex cattle and bought in Stores.
I had a lifelong interest in wool, as I am old enough to remember when half of our income came from it. Taking wool into the local “A” merchant or grading depot was a very important day, and my interest was probably improved by receiving a ten-shilling note from Mr.Strouts, who ran Gregory and Prentis in Ashford when I was six years old.
I learnt to shear on an early British Wool training course at 16 and when I was 18, headed off to the Southern Hemisphere and worked shearing, crutching and as a Rousie in the wool sheds. I went on to become a contract shearer in the south east and used to compete in competitions, becoming a Senior shearer in the English team.
When did you join British Wool?
I joined the regional committee which covered all Southern England and eventually became the Chairman of the committee. I became a Board Member in the mid 90’s and Chairman of British Wool in 1999 until 2011.
I am probably one of the few people who have seen the various offices and depots. The administrative HQ was originally in London but moved to the Depot at Clayton in Bradford. This site was too small and was eventually sold for housing, and the head offices moved to the Euroway Trading Estate to the south of Bradford, and the depot was on a separate site a short distance away. In around 2008, the site on Canal Road became available, and everything moved to where it is today in 2012.
During my time as Chairman, I made sure I visited all the depots and met the staff who did such a great job. It was inevitable, as the sheep numbers and weight of wool declined, that depots and staff numbers reduced and sadly have continued to do so.
What were some on the improvements and projects you worked on during your time as Chairman?
Several improvements were introduced, including the first fully hydraulic packing machines, which were produced by Marsh Engineering, a company located on Romney Marsh. This company had previously manufactured presses for the hop industry.
I also found a way of compacting wool sheets so these could be transported better between collection points and depots.
The most significant improvement in my time was the electronic online auction system, which was the first in the world, and while there was scepticism from the buyers, it has now been well received. It did have a false start in that it was to go live in spring 2001 but FMD stopped that, and it wasn’t until 2013 that it began. This revolutionised how wool was sold and made stock control and invoicing a seamless operation. In the days of the open cry auction, every depot would send in wool samples to Bradford for the buyers to inspect; the costs of this were getting close to a million pounds a year. So, we decided on a wool testing operation, and now have WTAE in Caernarfon, which analyses all the core samples from the bales, so the buyers have the technical info.
What were the biggest challenges during your period as Chairman?
My biggest challenge as Chairman was the reopening of export markets after FMD, especially China. This entailed visits to Shanghai and long discussions on how we could make the wool and the health certificates acceptable.
As we celebrate 75 years, how important is British Wool and the collective marketing of wool in the UK?
I was, for a short time, the President of the European Wool Group, and it was clear that without an organisation such as British Wool, there was no hope of wool values ever increasing. The organisation is the envy of Europe, with only Norway having an organised collection system now.
If British Wool ceased to exist, there would not be outlets for much of the wool and no one to help promote this excellent fibre.
