Farm upbringing inspires student’s sprayer design

A Norfolk student's farming upbringing has inspired the design of a garden sprayer as part of his A Level studies.

Will Jones, an upper sixth form student at Gresham's School in Holt, developed and built the machine for a design and technology project.

His working prototype, which cost £400 to build, can either be pushed or pulled by hand, or towed behind a ride-on mower or quad bike to apply fertilisers, insecticides and other liquid plant treatments on large lawns, parks or even around the school grounds.

It has a 60-litre tank, an electric pump and three-metre folding booms, modelled on the large industrial crop sprayers which he grew up with at H Jones Farms, in Little Witchingham, near Reepham.

The 17-year-old said: 'I live on a farm and so I grew up around these sort of things. I could have designed anything but I wanted to do something that I knew about, something that involved agriculture. I obviously couldn't go an design a big crop sprayer, so I came up with this.

'The teachers were all quite impressed and the school gardeners have said they want one.'

So, could the sprayer become a commercial product in the future? 'I think it could,' he said. 'There is a handle that clips into the tow hook, so it can be pushed or towed, and I have not seen another one that has that idea.'

After his A Levels, Will intends to study agriculture at university and plans a career in the farming industry – although he said that is more likely to be in a practical role using farm machinery rather than designing it.