About Us

Fred Hiam was born in 1872, and brought up on a 300-acre farm near Ely, Cambridgeshire.

Aged 20, he moved to London and successfully marketed his fathers' and neighbouring farmers' goods through the Covent Garden and Spittalfields wholesale markets. ( Frederick Hiam's fresh produce is still delivered into these 2 markets on a daily basis )

During the ensuing 18 years Fred became a successful produce marketeer, but still found time to marry and have an only daughter.

In 1910 he and his family moved to Cambridgeshire and by 1918 had invested a quarter of a million pounds in buying land in East Anglia, some of it for as little as £5 per acre.

Fred's interests were intensive cropping of the land and rearing and breaking heavy horses, which were no longer capable of coping with the hard London roads.