This is a short personal history of the now long-gone nursery business of C S Daniels & Son Ltd, which traded in Wymondham from around the turn of the last century until late 1971. Happily, however, the sign from the entrance to the business has found its way to the Wymondham Heritage Museum for posterity.

I was born and grew up in Wymondham until 1970, when the family moved to Norwich. What I never imagined when I started doing some family history in the pre-internet days was that the town where I grew up was the same place as most of my mother’s family had lived since records began in the 1660’s. A George Daniel born in 1680 married Ann Clark, who was born in Wymondham, in 1702, and he was my (x7) grandfather. From this time on the family moved between Mulbarton, Norwich and back to Wymondham, where I was born. And many of these ancestors were involved in seed and nursery work, which with the advent of new scientific methods in the nineteenth century created a whole new business opportunity for rural communities.

I like to think these family roots and my early childhood give me an invisible bond to the town and as time moves on, I wanted to write this article to help conserve some memories of a part of Wymondham that has now vanished.

The place I want to remember here is one that fascinated, occupied and entertained me during my first 12 years of life: the thirteen acres of nurseries of C S Daniels & Son Ltd, Northfield, Wymondham. The nursery entrance was on the northern end of Melton Road (see the map below).

This business was started by my great grandfather, Charles Samuel Daniels (1874-1956) around the early 1900s. His son, my grandfather, Charles Ernest Daniels was born in 1904 and after studying at RHS Wisley in the mid 1920’s, spent his life running and developing the nursery business.

The Daniels Family

The Daniels family had a well-established reputation in the seed growing and nursery business in Norwich in the mid to late nineteenth century, and Charles Samuel Daniels, the founder of the Northfield Nurseries, was the oldest son of Charles Daniels (1840-1927) who founded with his brother George, Daniels Brothers in the early 1870s. By 1892 they had several locations for their seed business, including the ‘Town Close Nurseries, Newmarket Road’.

When Charles senior died in 1923 ownership of Daniels Brothers passed to the Fletcher family.

The return of a Daniels to the firm came in 1957 when Mr. Charles E Daniels, grandson of the original Charles, Mr. W. J. Martin and Mr. G. G. Youngs bought the company from the Rivers Fletcher family. In 1967 they opened the garden centre on Daniels Road, which is today Notcutt’s Garden Centre.

1976 - Opening of Notcutt’s Garden Centre. L-R, back row, the Directors: A.E. Malt, Managing; Gordon Youngs (Accountant); W. (Bill) Martin, and Charles Daniels (Chairman)

(As an historical aside, Charles Samuel was one of 12 children, and his youngest brother, Cecil W Daniels who was killed in the first world war, is commemorated both on the war memorial in the town centre, and in Wymondham Abbey. Cecil, in the tradition of a nurseryman family, studied at Wisley between 1911-13.)

The beginnings of C S Daniels and Son

Charles Samuel Daniels can first be found in business in 1900 as Fruit Grower in Northfields, Wymondham with a Mr Aldis. He is also on the electoral roll as an owner of ‘Share of Freehold Land, Northfield’, which I assume is the land on which the nursery was subsequently built.

By 1911 Charles Samuel was living at ‘Friarscroft’, Friars Croft Lane and was listed in the census as a Nurseryman & Seed Grower. By then he had two children, Charles Ernest and Margaret.

The 1920s and 1930s leading up World War 2 saw the nursery grow and develop its mail order business selling seeds, bulbs, roses and plants.

During the war Charles Ernest had a reserved occupation and he took over from his father the running of the business. He was also a captain in the Home Guard. By all family accounts Charles senior was not a natural businessman, whereas his son Charles Ernest was.

My earliest memories of the nursery were as a child in the mid and late 1960s. I recall the excitement of being allowed to sit on a tractor collecting bedding plants from the fields for the mail-orders that were then the core of the business; of playing with the typewriters and adding machines in the office, and stamping hundreds of printed catalogues with ‘SOLD OUT’ on the plants no longer available; and being allowed to have my own clocking in card that I could time stamp along with the real nursery workers. And then there were the happy hours spent in the packing-shed stapling together cardboard boxes, wrapping bedding plants in newspaper and ticking them off the order forms before packing them in the boxes ready for collection by British Road Services and delivery across the UK and beyond. I recall one customer lived on Sark.

The Final Years

By 1971 Charles was 67 and wanting to retire. While the business was profitable, Charles needed a pension, and he and his daughter decided to sell the business.

In November 1971 the land, buildings, stock and boilers were all sold at auction.

Once what was agricultural land on the edge of Wymondham instead became prime land for the expansion of housing for the growing population.

Legacy

There is little left today of the nursery other than the sign in the Heritage Museum, although if you drive along Melton Road, you can still see the house of the nursery manager located adjacent to what was the entrance to the nursery.