Good Read About Sutton's Seeds, Plus Side Trip Into Coppicing

"Do day-dreams come true? 

Are boyish fancies ever realised? 

Sometimes. 

There was once a quiet lad about the town of Reading whose ideal was to own a garden nursery."

I continue to be interested in how some seed companies thrive over decades, some now into counting centuries.  A search for "seed testing for quality" brought me to Successful Business-men: Short Accounts of the Rise of Famous Firms, with Sketches of the Founders, 1892.  It is a good read.

"When that son, Mr. Martin Hope Sutton—the virtual founder of the present gigantic establishment —was born in Waterloo year, his father was involved in great loss by reason of a bank failure. But, with characteristic British energy, he named his boy "Hope," in anticipation of a better day dawning."

I went to Suttons web site to see their history page.  It is a worthwhile read, if only for the Google satellite map of their company headquarters in Paignton, Devon!  

The landscape around them is so foreign to my American eyes, with wooded areas,  defined by fields,  named - Peter's Copse, Shopdown Copse, Oathill Copse.  I wonder why some are called a "Wood" and others a "Copse".  I suppose the species in the the copse were, in fact, coppiced.

"Lime Coppice at Westernbirt Arboretum which is a staggering 2000 years old!"

Tom Ward, in this The Basket Makers’ Landscape, explains:

"A copse is a thicket of shrubs or stump sprouts. 

Coupe in French means a blow or a cut. To coppice a 

woody shrub or tree one cuts the main stem(s) back to the 

ground to force new growth. Pollarding is to cut the plant back 

to the central stem, usually at head height or above, to stimulate 

the same kind of regeneration. This is usually done during winter 

when the plant is dormant; the spring sap flow brings nutrients up 

from storage in the roots and the bare branches or stump grows 

new buds under the bark that sprout and grow rapidly. 

The long skinny twigs that grow from this process provide good material 

for a wide range of human artifacts. They are called withies, and 

bundles of them are called faggots, fascines, or brindles. 

The stump is called a stool and many other simple words are also 

associated with this type of forest and land management, often 

called standards-and-coppice forestry. The standards are the 

overstory or timber trees left standing for their good form and 

genetics and for multiple other reasons." 

Following history in a nutshell by the BBC, from www.sutton-seeds.co.uk

Sutton Seeds was founded in Reading in 1806, by John Sutton.

This book is a current publication.

It was initially named the 'House of Sutton' and supplied corn.

John was joined in 1832 by his sons Martin Hope and Alfred.

It was then that the business moved to its famous premises in Market Place and they launched the flower and vegetable seed business.

In 1836 Martin Hope became a partner and the 'House of Sutton' became Sutton & Son.

The company continued to expand and in 1873 new offices and warehouses replaced the premises in Market Place.

These new premises were huge and even had their own fire station along with cottages for the firemen, and stables.

In 1962, Suttons moved to state-of-the-art premises on the A4 London Road.  But in 1976 the company relocated to Torquay, because Reading couldn't provide enough staff and in 1998 the firm moved to Paignton.

Now the firm is part of an international seed distribution business called Vilmorin.

Tin box, approx. 70 years old the eBay listing said...

This is fun :-)  Shiny seed bags are icky, but a little mod work would fix that.