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You are here: Home>Work>Agriculture, Horticulture and Allotments

Agriculture, Horticulture and Allotments

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  • 1911 census return for grocer Edwin Hollingworth and family

    1911 census return for grocer Edwin Hollingworth and family

    Reference: 0049
  • Advertisement for carting contractor Edwin Hollingworth from Hookers Almanack

    Advertisement for carting contractor Edwin Hollingworth from Hookers Almanack

    Diversity was still the name of the game in the early years of the twentieth century – if you were a fruiterer, greengrocer and nurseryman you would likely have a horse and cart, so there’s extra money to be made – you could also be a carter!
    Reference: WH0436
  • Advertisement for Edwin Hollingworth's 'Fruit Stores' - Westerham Herald 1928

    Advertisement for Edwin Hollingworth's 'Fruit Stores' - Westerham Herald 1928

    Reference: 0042
  • Advertisement for fruiterer and florist Botley from the Westerham Guide 1927

    Advertisement for fruiterer and florist Botley from the Westerham Guide 1927

    Charles Aubrey Botley had his Nursery and shop beside Quebec House at the bottom of Vicarage Hill. The shop, which Gwen Smith remembered for its “long white marble counter and gleaming scales” is the distinctive low building with carved wood lattice-work window, called ‘Darenth’ today. As a nursery-man’s shop this dates back to the mid-1860s ...
    Reference: WH0437
  • Advertisement for greengrocer  and seedsman Edwin Hollingworth from Hookers Almanack

    Advertisement for greengrocer and seedsman Edwin Hollingworth from Hookers Almanack

    Edwin John Hollingworth rented his nursery site beside the Market Field from the Knipe estate, owners of The Grange. He was a fruiterer and florist selling from his shop sited where the Post Office is today (2018) and would be the man to go and talk to for gardening advice between the Wars. Clearly a ...
    Reference: WH0434
  • Advertisement for Jeffkins Nursery from Hookers Almanack

    Advertisement for Jeffkins Nursery from Hookers Almanack

    It is interesting to note that even in 1890, local nurseryman Arthur Jeffkins was claiming Darenth Nursery to be the oldest in the district, being over 100 years old then!
    Reference: WH0420
  • Advertisement for John Cattell's 'West Kent' Nursery

    Advertisement for John Cattell's 'West Kent' Nursery

    This rather quaint advertisement appeared on the back of the Westerham Herald newspaper in 1883 and clearly shows where John Cattell’s business was sited, next door to the Grasshopper on the Green.  Local nurseryman and seed grower Thomas Wm. Edmunds, purveyor of Cattell’s seeds quotes in the 1899 edition of ‘Wolfeland: a handbook to Westerham ...
    Reference: WH0433
  • Advertisement for nurseryman B. Quittenden

    Advertisement for nurseryman B. Quittenden

    This advertisement from Benjamin Quittenden in the 1915 edition of Hookers Almanack quotes that John Cattell had established his seed growing business in 1799.
    Reference: WH0435
  • Advertisement for Pine Nursery by C.F. Cattell in the Westerham Herald

    Advertisement for Pine Nursery by C.F. Cattell in the Westerham Herald

    This curious ‘advertisement’ appeared in the Westerham Herald in the early 1900s, clearly attempting to smooth some troubled waters.  It starts by promoting that he, Charles F. Cattell, is the son of the late great nurseryman John Cattell, but then proclaims that the nursery site is remote enough to grow speciality stock and keep them ...
    Reference: WH0432
  • Advertisement for The Westerham Fanciers' Association, Hookers Almanack

    Advertisement for The Westerham Fanciers' Association, Hookers Almanack

    Founded in 1912 the ‘Westerham Fanciers Association’ drew members from those that kept chickens and other fowl for show and breeding purposes. The President of the association was Alexander Owen Wolfe-Aylward, himself a direct descendant of James Wolfe’s uncle, who had in 1914 taken over with his wife as custodians of Quebec House, a position ...
    Reference: 0043
  • Alan and Bob Matthews at Nursery Cottage, London Road

    Alan and Bob Matthews at Nursery Cottage, London Road

    The lads are standing in what had originally been ‘Newton’s Nursery’ which was on the north side of London Road stretching down to South Bank. This was the first of the towns’ nurseries to be closed around the time of the first World War.
    Reference: 0044
  • Allotment Rules, Westerham Parish Council, page 1

    Allotment Rules, Westerham Parish Council, page 1

    Reference: WH0424
  • Allotment Rules, Westerham Parish Council, page 2

    Allotment Rules, Westerham Parish Council, page 2

    Reference: WH0425
  • Catalog for Horticultural Society 39th annual exhibition at Squerryes

    Catalog for Horticultural Society 39th annual exhibition at Squerryes

    Begun in 1872, Westerham Horticultural Society was popular amongst the community who would look forward to the annual summer exhibition each year. It was for many years hosted by the Warde family in Surrey Park at the bottom of Goodley Stock, west of Squerryes Court, where big marquees would be erected to house the displays. ...
    Reference: WH0441
  • Census showing florist and nurseryman Langridge

    Census showing florist and nurseryman Langridge

    Reference: WH0423
  • Charles Aubrey Botley's nursery shop at the bottom of Vicarage Hill

    Charles Aubrey Botley's nursery shop at the bottom of Vicarage Hill

    Being the proprietor of ‘Darenth Nursery’ adjacent to Quebec House, Charles Aubrey Botley and his wife Marjorie Hope, sold vegetables they grew on the nursery site behind their shop.  The little shop at the bottom of Vicarage Hill can still be recognised today, though it has for many years been a private residence. Botley’s shop stirred fond ...
    Reference: 0045
  • Edwin Hollingworth seed catalog

    Edwin Hollingworth seed catalog

    In the early 1920s, before J. S. Charlton (Sevenoaks) opened their corn stores and gardening shop where ‘Nisa’ is in 2018, gardeners would go to Mr. Hollingworth for their seeds, and no doubt some advice and wisdom, as he was a knowledgable man who would often lecture at the Horticultural Society on fertilisers, pesticides and ...
    Reference: WH0439
  • Edwin Hollingworth's seed catalog

    Edwin Hollingworth's seed catalog

    The inside pages offer a huge breadth of vegetable seeds including specialist varieties now the stuff of myth and legend.
    Reference: WH0440
  • Edwin Hollingworth's shop and the water fountain

    Edwin Hollingworth's shop and the water fountain

    Hollingworth’s fruit and vegetable shop was the one with the rather tatty blind next door to Edwin Catt’s drapery store. Mr Hollingworth had his nursery down beside the market field in what became the eastern end of the Quebec Avenue development. His nursery was known by the youngsters of the day as ‘Hollybob’s Ranch’ but ...
    Reference: WH0463
  • Horticultural Society postcard for flower show

    Horticultural Society postcard for flower show

    Reference: WH0428
  • Horticultural Society rules for exhibitors

    Horticultural Society rules for exhibitors

    The Horticultural Society took themselves very seriously in 1909, and stated that “…the judges will not award prizes to such productions as may not be deemed worthy”.  Prizes were always cash and at that time of Five Shillings and upwards.
    Reference: WH0442
  • Hosey School evening class - the gardening class 1926

    Hosey School evening class - the gardening class 1926

    It was to Tonbridge Technical Institute that Kent Education Committee steered Hosey School headmaster ‘Dick’ Forsey when teaching staff in the School requested to start a programme of evening classes in the mid 1920s to provide further education for the senior boys. These proved very popular and were soon opened to the younger boys as ...
    Reference: 0046
  • Map of allotments 27-41 Kennedy Gardens on Hosey Hill

    Map of allotments 27-41 Kennedy Gardens on Hosey Hill

    The Gardens of Hosey date back to 1815 when ‘commons waste’ was mapped-out and ‘allotted’ to the families of the poor of the district, the menfolk of whom had fought for Britain in the Napoleonic wars – penniless men came home to starving families.  Enclosure of commons waste was being established in rural areas throughout the country at ...
    Reference: WH0445
  • Map of allotments Kennedy Gardens on Hosey Hill

    Map of allotments Kennedy Gardens on Hosey Hill

    This 1934 O.S. map shows the northern half of the ‘Kennedy Garden’ allotments, being plots 27 at the south end and 41 at the north, behind the school. Between the two divided sections of the Gardens can be seen the haul road for movement of ragstone excavated from the Hosey mines in the nineteenth century.
    Reference: WH0429
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