172 
JOURNAL  OF  HORTICULTURE  AND  COTTAGE  GARDENER. 
August  19.  1897. 
WORDSLEY  AND  KINVER. 
fJuLi  was  drawing  to  a  cloie  when  the  decision  was  arrived  at 
to  pay  a  visit  to  Wordsley  and  Kinver,  in  the  fertile  coanty  of 
Worcester.  Rapidly  as  the  train  sped  on  its  way,  one  could  see  with 
pleasure  the  crops  in  the  celebrated  Vale  of  Evesham.  Not  that  these 
are  as  heavy  as  they  have  been  in  the  years  immediately  preceding 
— late  frosts  having  told  their  tale  in  the  lightness  of  the  fruit  here, 
as  in  many  places  over  all  the  country.  However,  this  may  not  be 
altogether  unfavourable  to  the  growers,  as  prices  must  be  higher  for  the 
best  produce,  aud  it  will  allow  the  trees  to  recu  perate  after  the  tax  that 
has  been  put  upon  their  energies  by  the  immense  crops  of  the  past  few 
seasons.  But  it  was  not  to  enter  into  the  aspects  of  fruit  jn  Worcester¬ 
shire  that  the  journey  was  made,  but  to  see  the  establishment  of 
Messrs.  E.  Webb  &  Sons,  at 
Wordsley,  with  the  firm’s  seed 
farms  at  Kinver. 
Alighting  from  the  train  at 
Stourbridge  Junction  a  trap  was 
found  in  waiting,  and  the  drive 
through  Stourbridge  entered 
upon.  The.  town  is  rather  an  old 
one,  with  narrow  streets,  but  thefe 
being  left  behind  a  broad,  hilly 
country  road  stretched  in  front 
with  the  houses  of  Wordsley 
showing  in  the  distance.  It  is 
not  a  long  drive,  but  a  very  plea¬ 
sant  one,  and  before  the  end 
of  it  the  immense  warehouses  of 
our  destination  could  be  seen 
towering  high  above  the  sur¬ 
rounding  buildings.  The  head¬ 
quarters  of  the  firm  are  not  on 
the  main  road,  but  in  an  out  of 
the  way  corner  off  one  of  the 
smaller  streets  of  the  village  or 
town.  It  is  only  their  size  that 
makes  them  conspicuous  from 
afar,  and  extensive  though  they 
appear  from  a  distance  they  seem 
to  enlarge  materially  when  the 
place  is  actually  reached, 
Wordsley. 
It  is  fitting  that  a  few  words 
should  now  be  said  about  the 
business  that  has  grown  so  rapidly 
under  the  proprietorship  of  the 
two  brothers,  by  whom  it  was 
launched  thirty-five  years  ago. 
Not  that  the  Webbs  of  Wordsley 
were  unknown  prior  to  1862. 
But  the  late  Mr.  Edward  Webb 
was  a  mill  owner,  a  glass  manu¬ 
facturer,  besides  other  things,  and 
not  a  seed  grower,  this  s’ction  of 
the  firm  being  started  by  his  sons, 
Mr.  William  and  Mr.  Edward 
Webb,  who  control  it  still.  From 
the  elder  brother  many  interesting 
particulars  were  learned,  and  a 
conversation  with  him  goes  far  to 
explain  the  growth  of  the  business, 
for  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  his 
straightforwardness,  geniality,  and 
clearsightedness  have  tended 
greatly  in  that  direction.  Both 
he  and  his  brother,  who  was  away 
at  the  time  of  the  visit,  give  their 
personal  supervision  to  the  concern,  which  comprises  so  many  different 
departmtnts,  each  with  its  responsible  manager,  who  reports  direct  to 
the  principals  themselves. 
The  divisions  of  the  firm  are  really  six  in  number,  of  which  the 
oldest  is  the  mill.  Then  there  are  the  Hops,  the  wool,  the  manure 
manufactory,  the  farm  seed,  and  lastly  the  garden  sted,  the  latter  being 
the  juvenile  section  of  the  firm,  having  had  its  inception  about  twenty- 
two  years  ago.  Considering  the  innumerable  details  connected  with  all 
these,  it  cannot  be  wondered  at  that  the  brothers  decided  to  relinquish 
the  glass  works  some  time  back,  and  devote  their  energies  to  the 
remainder,  and  for  most  men  this  would  be  more  than  sufficient.  As 
Hop  dealers  Messrs.  Webb  are  well  known  in  the  Borough  Market, 
while  their  wool  trade  is  not  very  much  smaller.  With  these  we  have 
nothing  to  do,  but  a  peep  into  the  warehouses  devoted  to  these  products 
showed  thousands  of  pockets  of  the  one,  and  equally  large  numbers  of 
bales  of  the  other  ready  for  placing  on  the  maiket  at  the  proper  time, 
these  two  departments  alone  mast  entail  a  vast  amount  of  hard  work 
m  buying  and  selling  to  the  best  advantage.  The  mill  was  not  visited, 
as  the  time  at  disposal  would  not  permit  of  it. 
Regarding  the  manure  works,  which  are  situated  at  Saltney  in 
Cheshire,  it  need  not  be  said  that  they  also  could  not  be  seen,  but  their 
extent  is  comparatively  well  known.  It  will  be  remembered  that  some 
years  ago  Messrs.  Webb  bought  out  Messrs.  Proctor  &  Rylands,  who 
originated  the  Saltney  works.  To  these  the  business  that  had  been 
established  in  manures  at  Wordsley  was^ transferred,  making  one  vast 
concern  whence  thousands  of  tons  of  artificial  manures  are  distributed 
yearly  throughout  the  length  and  breadth  of  the  land.  The  mixtures 
are  mainly  for  agricultural  purposes,  though  excellent  compounds  are 
made  up  for  the  garden.  One  point  in  connection  with  the  manure 
works  is  the  system  of  testing  all  the  mixtures  that  are  sold  on  the  farms 
at  Kinver.  Not  only  those  for  the  garden,  but  for  the  farm  also  are 
carefully  tried  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  their  value,  and  as  minute 
records  are  kept  of  each  trial  practical  results  are  readily  arrived  at. 
In  addition  to  this,  experiments 
are  yearly  made  with  fresh  com¬ 
pounds  so  as  to  make  all  possible 
improvements  on  existing  mix¬ 
tures.  We  saw  the  varying  effects 
of  some  of  them  when  driving 
through  the  farms  at  Kinver,  but 
details  cannot  be  given  here. 
In  the  farm  seed  warehouses 
it  was  astonishing  to  see  the 
immense  quantities  of  Mangold 
Wurtzel  and  Swede  seeds  there 
were  in  stock,  and  which  must 
have  mounted  to  several  thou¬ 
sands  of  bushels.  While  these 
formed  the  major  portion  of  the 
bulk  of  seeds  then  in  store,  there 
were,  of  course,  considerable 
amounts  of  all  other  seeds  that 
come  under  the  farm  section* 
Trials  of  all  of  these  are  made  at 
Kinver  in  order  to  insure  the 
terminating  power  of  the  seeds, 
as  well  as  to  be  certain  that  they 
are  true  to  name.  The  arrange¬ 
ments  for  the  fulfilling  of  orders 
here  and  in  the  garden  seed 
department  are  admirable.  Every 
facility  is  at  hand  to  favour  rapid 
work,  and  the  employes,  no  doubt, 
take  the  fullest  advantage  thereof. 
The  amount  of  floor  space  in  the 
several  warehouses,  we  were  in¬ 
formed,  exceeded  3  acres,  and  as 
most  of  it  was  occupied  a  slight 
idea  may  be  formed  of  the  quan¬ 
tities  of  stock  on  hand.  This,  of 
course,  is  inclusive  of  the  Hop 
and  wool  stores.  Throughout  the 
warehouses  fire-proof  doors  have 
recently  been  fitted. 
There  is  a  new  department  just 
being  commenced  at  Wordsley 
which  will  become  an  important 
one  in  the  course  of  a  few  years. 
For  some  time  the  firm  has  recog¬ 
nised  the  importance  of  growing 
its  own  stocks  of  seeds  of  the 
choice  florists’  flowers,  but  the 
absence  of  glass  houses  has  been 
the  effectual  obstacle  to  its  being 
done.  This  is  now  partially  re¬ 
moved,  for  the  erection  of  houses 
has  commenced,  three  long  span- 
!  roofed  structures  being  completed  ready  for  occupation.  As  they  are 
!  light,  well  built,  with  ample  accommodation  for  ventilating  and  heating 
on  sound  principles  they  will  doubtless  answer  the  purpose  intended 
and  give  satisfactory  results.  More  houses  will  be  put  up  as  they  are 
required,  and  the  department  will  eventually  become  an  important  as 
well  as  an  interesting  feature  of  this  thriving  business. 
Another  word  or  two  about  Wordsley,  and  Kinver  must  be  noted. 
The  block  of  buildings  to  which  momentary  attention  is  now  to  be  given 
j  comprise  the  private  rooms  of  the  principals,  of  the  cashier,  and  the 
i  chief  clerk,  with  the  general  offices,  and  a  reading-room  for  the  employes, 
j  Thirty-five  years  ago  a  small  portion  of  this  sufficed  for  the  whole,  of  the 
*  seed  business,  and  at  the  present  moment  the  whole  of  it  scarcely 
I  contains  sufficient  space  for  the  clerical  work  that  has  to  be  done. 
I  Looking  from  this  to  the  warehouses,  and  thiirking  of  -  the  business  that 
I  is  done,  one  is  surprised  at  the  ability  and  the  indomitable  perseverance 
I  of  the  two  men  who  have  built  up  the  whole  piece  by  piece,  and  are 
I  even  now  contemplating  the  erection  of  another  warehouse,  though  the 
.  last  one  was  only  completed  in  1895. 
Fig.  24. — Webbs’  Delphinium. 
