Harry Stewart was so much part of Badsey, so well known as a Vale Grower and Farmer and connected with so wide a range of local activities that anything written in this brief tribute will seem inadequate for the occasion, especially in the eyes of those who knew him. However, there are some who having moved into this village during the last few years will not have known him before his illness. He had been born and bred in Badsey, and together with his brothers he built up one of the largest firms of Growers in the district. At one time the firm had 40 men working for it, farmed (apart from other land) 400 acres of Brussels sprouts and ran its own bus to take the men up to the fields on the hills, in some cases as far as Guiting. Harry Stewart was much involved in local government, being a County Councillor, a member of the Evesham Rural District council and Chairman of the Parish Council. He was a keen member of the Church and was for many years a member of the Parochial Church Council and a Churchwarden. There are many organisations in the village which at one time or another have been helped by his generosity, and certainly many individuals who have cause for gratitude. To take just one example, it was he who saw to the clearing of the site for the new Churchyard extension and who had the stone wall built along the eastern boundary after the demolition of the old cottages (Sharps Row). Harry Stewart was the last of seven brothers to die, and with his death another chapter of Badsey history is concluded. May he rest in peace.
