The following obituary appeared in The Times

Andrew Densham obituary: solicitor specialising in agricultural law

Respected advocate who once had a run-in with Lord Denning over tea in the Royal Courts of Justice dies aged 85

Densham was based at Burges Salmon in Bristol from 1969 to 2003 but travelled the country, such was the demand for his expertise

In 1947 the Labour government, reflecting on the food shortages of the Second World War, determined to support and strengthen the domestic agricultural industry. Since the Agriculture Act of 1947, a steady stream of complex and at times contradictory legislation, domestic and European, has governed the sector. The solicitor Andrew Densham was the unrivalled legal expert in this field. 

From 1969 until 2003, Densham was based in the offices of Burges Salmon in Bristol but his reputation was nationwide. Equipped with a powerful car and a detailed knowledge of the road network, he was in demand from Cumbria to Cornwall and the western extremes of Wales. Much of his practice was conducted at the table in farmhouse kitchens or estate offices in remote locations.

Mentored in the practice by his predecessor Wilfred Scammell, he was the editor of the authoritative textbook on the law of agricultural holdings, Scammell and Densham, taking sole personal charge of the sixth edition in 1978. It is now in its 11th edition. Beyond his encyclopaedic command of the law, his appeal to clients lay in his great personal charm, a detailed technical knowledge of practical farming, a fearless commitment to his clients’ interests and his skill as an advocate.

An early demonstration of his mettle, outside his finally chosen specialism, occurred in 1973 when an Invicta Airlines plane carrying 140 passengers, mainly women on a day’s shopping outing from Bristol to Basel, crashed into a wooded hillside in Switzerland, killing 108 people. Acting for the families, Densham noted that, unless he could prove “recklessness” on the part of the parties responsible for safety, the families would, under the Warsaw Convention, receive derisory compensation.

He led a team which, after meticulous research, proved numerous shortcomings: the first pilot had no effective qualifications; the pilot and co-pilot committed many navigational errors; air traffic control at Basel neglected to give any warnings to the flight deck; and two of the beacons at Basel, which should have averted the impending disaster, were out of action. The families of the survivors received greatly enhanced compensation.

In farming circles he is better known for his confrontation with the late Master of the Rolls, Lord Denning. The 1947 law reforms gave tenant farmers, most of whom who had nothing more than a traditional yearly tenancy, much-needed security of tenure. If they received a notice to quit, they were given the right to challenge it in writing within four weeks; and the landlord would then be bound to prove, at a tribunal or in arbitration, proper grounds for eviction. If the tenant took no action they would have to leave.

Denning owned a house and land in Hampshire. Part of the land was let to a farmer who annoyed him by shooting vermin (as he was entitled to do) the day before his lordship had organised a shooting party on his own land. Gunfire from the tenant frightened off the game, the shooting party left empty-handed, and Denning wrote a letter to the tenant in unusual terms requiring him to leave. The tenant made no reply and was threatened with eviction. He then turned to Densham, who wrote to Denning. Invited to tea in the Royal Courts of Justice, he asked the judge if he really thought his letter was a proper notice to quit, reminding him that he himself had said in the Court of Appeal that such a document was “a wolf in sheep’s clothing”. “Did we say that?” asked the judge. The matter ended there and then.

Henry Andrew Cridland Densham was the eldest son of Mary Constance Densham (née Cridland) and Humphrey Ashley Densham, the owner of a leather tanning business in Bristol. After Tonbridge School and Bristol University, where he read law, Densham completed his legal training in Bristol and quickly moved to the offices of Burges Salmon, where in due course he became senior partner. He sat, unusually, as a deputy recorder and circuit judge.

In farming circles Densham is well known for his confrontation with the late Lord Denning, Master of the Rolls, over a tenancy dispute

Densham’s talent as a persuasive advocate was in full display at hearings in tribunals, arbitrations and the lower courts. They concerned a wide range of disputes between landlord and tenant, and had to grapple with the commercially significant consequences of production quotas imposed by Brussels. He had a commanding presence, spoke agreeably, knowledgeably and fluently, and was listened to with respect. But, despite encouragement, he never applied for the right as a solicitor-advocate to appear in the higher courts. One consequence of this was that it was left to members of the Bar to try to defend in the Court of Appeal some of the surprising decisions which lower tribunals, out of reverence or terror or a combination of the two, had reached in his favour.

He was in great demand as a speaker at farming and professional conferences, and held calm and independent views on the merits and defects in the law which he practised, with its many loopholes and traps. He felt that the pendulum had swung too far when parliament in 1976 and 1986 allowed two generations of the families of deceased or retiring tenant farmers to succeed to secure tenancies, and too far in the other direction when security of tenure was abolished altogether for tenancies granted after 1995.

Densham was a man of deep religious faith and moral commitment and for many years served as church warden in the parish of All Saints in the village of Wrington, Somerset, where he lived. During his sabbatical he spent time in retreat in the monastery on Mount Athos. On retirement, he devoted his energies to supporting charities which were close to his interests: he was chair of the Royal Agricultural Benevolent Institution, chair of the Dolphin Society, which provides vulnerable people in Bristol with telephones, a trustee of St Monica, also based in Bristol, which provides accommodation for the elderly, and he led the restructuring of the Bristol Cathedral Trust. In the Queen’s Birthday Honours list of 2000 he was appointed CBE in recognition of his services to the agricultural industry.

He is survived by his wife Fiona and his three children: Edward (Ned), an accountant, Lucy, a mental health professional, and William, a solicitor.

Densham retained a deep love for the countryside and an abiding admiration for the farming community. He became an expert in countless regional accents and variations in rural jargon and slang. But he never tackled Welsh.

Andrew Densham, solicitor, was born on November 30, 1940. He died on July 10, 2026, aged 85