It was very much against received agricultural wisdom that Jimmy McConnel decided to grow blackcurrants and cider apples at his Whitehouse Farm on the upper slopes of a hill that falls precipitately down to the Monnow River near Skenfrith in Monmouthshire.

Experts told him that trying to create an orchard on such slopes would simply never work. Yet with modifications to the equipment needed to harvest the fruit, which was invented by Jimmy and his father Freddy McConnel (obituary March 20, 1989) with the help of Somerset Fruit Machinery, this bold experiment was a resounding success.

After driving through pea-souper fogs in the Netherlands in search of root stock, McConnel planted his first cider apple trees in 1968. In due course he was supplying Bulmers of Hereford with a large tonnage of cider apples, and in more recent times sold apples to the C&C group for its Magners brand.

Finally, when faced with a surfeit of apples in 2006, he launched his own high-quality farm cider, Ty Gwyn, scooping prizes that included a gold medal at the Leeds Beer, Cider and Perry Festival.

McConnel’s blackcurrants, previously harvested by hand, were also a success, and a quantity of them found their way into the ever-popular drink Ribena.

Jimmy McConnel was born in Martley, Worcestershire, in 1929 into a Scottish Borders family. He inherited his love of machines from his father Frederic, who in the 1930s had invented the first mechanical hop-picking machine.

During his schooldays at Harrow, he acquired the nickname Mechanically-Minded-McConnel, and was determined to follow in his father’s footsteps. After National Service followed by a short service commission in the Army, in 1958 he turned to agriculture, becoming a farm chemicals salesman with J. M. Stokes Bomford in Evesham.

This first brought him to Whitehouse, where he had a spell as a farm pupil before managing the farm for the owner Eric Drummond. With a loan from his father he bought the farm in the early 1960s, gradually expanding it over the years.

He experimented ceaselessly with crop varieties, fertilisation and cultivation techniques. He was also sensitive to the landscape and the environment and enjoyed lecturing the groups of schoolchildren who visited Whitehouse Farm. He engineered a lake on the farm to assist the trickle irrigation of 15 acres of blackcurrants and to encourage wildlife such as ducks, butterflies and dragonflies, including trout that swam in from nearby streams.

He worked enthusiastically alongside GlaxoSmithKline, putting up nesting boxes and hosting webcams. When the Forestry Commission put up for sale the wood that sits above his farm McConnel bought it and ensured that it was managed to the highest standards. Whitehouse Farm’s woodlands and plantations won awards from the Royal Forestry Society of England, Wales and Northern Ireland and the Royal Welsh Agricultural Society.

In 1970 he formed Monnow Valley Farms with two other partners, and it became one of the first EEC grant-aided farm co-operatives to be formed in the UK. In 1991 he was appointed High Sheriff of Gwent, and in 1998 a Deputy Lieutenant.

In spite of being a well-built 6ft 4in, McConnel was delicate in his movements and much admired for his graceful Scottish dancing. He inherited a musical talent from his father, and played the trumpet, piano and piano accordion.

In 1984 he married Judith Marian Hannaford; a widow with two teenage sons, who brought colour and comfort to his bachelor farmhouse.

Jimmy McConnel, fruitgrower and cider-maker, was born on September 10, 1929. He died of cancer on February 8, 2009, aged 79