On 25/07/2012 09:57, Sacha wrote:
On 2012-07-25 09:47:10 +0100, David Rance
said:

On Tue, 24 Jul 2012 Sacha wrote:

Edward Hyams was among the first to reintroduce vines as wine growing
plants to UK. http://www.molash.com/archive/hyams.htm He grew
several here and in Kent before he moved and they were not a total
success. Otoh, Sharpham Vineyard on the banks of the Dart, about 30
minutes drive from here on a busy day, produces delicious wine. We
do have commercial vineyards but not in the thousands and thousands
of bottles that can be produced in e.g. Bordeaux.

There have been advances in developing grape varieties since Hyams'
time (I believe he was active in the 1940s/50s) and in most years one
can expect a reasonable harvest.

I'm sure there must have been great advances and yes he was working on
this in the 40s/50s. He was also an anarchist who loved the good life
and was quite the name-dropper. An interesting combination!

I had never heard of Edward Hyams until his name was mentioned here.
However, a neighbour and friend of mine who died two years ago was also
named Hyams. It turns out that Edward Hyams had exactly the same name
(Edward Soloman Hyams) as my friend's father - but he was born 30 years
earlier in 1880 - and they were from the same part of London. They must
have been related. This is intriguing, I do wish I had known about
Edward Hyams a few years back so I could have asked my old friend about
his connection to him.