Author: Editor

Mr Jenks’s Garden

By Jean Hopkinson. This article was first published in the 2011 society Journal.

A strong wind rolled dark brown ‘golf balls’ down the bank at the end of the Bromyard underpass in August and I remember resolving to find out which conifer had borne the cones. I then forgot about them until reading through a file of Phyllis Williams’s
working papers in the History Centre I came across the following invoice dated Christmas 1890 amongst others relating to Mr James Jenks’s business at the Tan Yard in Pump Street:

A.Marshall, High St., Bromyard, Green Grocer, Fruiterer, Florist etc.
1 Wellingtonia 10s 0d
1 Irish Yew 4 0
1 Cupresus 5 0
Men getting up and planting tree 1 0
2 men ¾day each, 1¼ days 4 6
1 laurel tinns 2 6
1 Cupresus Erecta 4 0
Purple beech tree 5 0

From the Ordnance Survey map surveyed in 1884 it appears that there was no garden next to the Tan House, however it does show that the present Nunwell Surgery, on the opposite side of the road, stands on a sizeable plot marked Tannery that may have
filled this role. The area, which by 1845 had already been cleared of the burgage plots developed by the bishop of Hereford in the 12th century, was an orchard and extended from the boundary with Nunwell House to include all the land at present occupied by the surgery, the width of the bypass and the ground up to the row of
cottages that stand on the west of Tower Hill. It fronted onto Pump Street, and on the west was bounded by a footpath which still stretches from Highwell Lane to the top of Little Hereford Street, passing a kissing-gate now beached forlornly at Old Ditch
Cottage. When the surgery was still in Nunwell House this land was a paddock where Dr King-Lewis kept a pony for his trap before he acquired a Daimler.

Being in the tanning business Mr Jenks would have been knowledgeable about the properties of various woods, and probably chose his purchases with care. There appear to have been six pits in the middle of the plot and maybe the intention was for the new trees to act as a screen. I determined to see if any had survived.
There is no sign of the Irish yew and a Laurelstinus might not be expected to live that long. There is, however, a pallid offspring of the purple beech, and happily spared when the bypass was put through in 1966-7 is a towering Wellingtonia only six yards from the pavement, whose cones are the origin of my ‘golf balls’ and which can remain green and hang on the tree for twenty years. Standing on council land, it is automatically protected and there is no need for one of the tree preservation orders first introduced as part of the Local Government Act of 1947. Wellingtonias were brought to Britain in 1854 and the naming of the tree after the Duke of
Wellington who had died two years previously, caused an international row between the British and the Americans who wanted it called the ‘Washington’. After years of dispute it was finally named Sequoiadendron giganteum because of its similarity to the Coast Redwood, Sequoia sempervirens.
Among other conifers are several Cupressus Lawsonia with their small spherical cones, augmented by two possible White Cedars, Thuja occidentalis, with cones that turn an attractive yellowish green as they mature; ‘by their fruits [appears to be the
only way] ye shall know them!’ I have visited the surgery since 1964 and never noticed the spectacular tulip tree by the entrance. Across the bypass in what remains of Mr Jenks’s garden is Nunwell Park carefully preserved as an open space thanks to the foresight of the then parish council and now home to Time Tower, Philip Bews’s sturdy Millennium wooden sculpture. There are also a couple of London Plane trees, but unfortunately it is impossible to say whether Mr Jenks bought these.
I have no doubt, however, that the magnificent Wellingtonia was the one planted by him, a generous benefactor during his lifetime, still ‘benefactoring’ Bromyard over a century later.
Sources
B&DLHS/AWa B56/2/8 Bills relating to Mr Jenks’ business at the Tan Yard
Roger Phillips, Trees in Britain (1983)
Ordnance Survey 1887
bbc co.uk/gardening/design – Victorian
wikipedia.org/wiki/sequioadendron
www.bewsgorvin.co.uk

13 October 2025
The Morgan Car & Pettifers of Bromyard

By Hugh Langrishe.

This article first appeared in the 2010 society Journal.

The Rev. Prebendary Henry George Morgan was a keen motorist owning several motor cars before 1910. They were serviced and repaired by A&E Pettifer in their Rowberry Street garage, as were the early cars of his son Henry Frederick Stanley Morgan also known as Harry Morgan or HFS. Albert Pettifer was a keen motorist and one of 35 drivers to tackle the first Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb in 1905. HFS also gained a taste of competitive motoring when he entered the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb on 13 July 1907. He also competed in the 1906 Fromes Hill, hill climb.

It was not until 1910, approximately five years after Pettifer’s new garage was built replacing the old one which had burnt down, that Mr. Pettifer was commissioned to build the first body and chassis for HFS’s final prototype single-seater three wheeler “Runabout”. This was the final development of the first car to be fitted with a Peugeot Vee-twin engine.

The 1910 car was shown at the 1910 Olympia Motor Show. It attracted much favourable comment but few orders. Those that were built were bodied by Pettifer. For the 1911 Motor Show the car was re-bodied as a two seater, again by Pettifer, and attracted many orders.

HFS accepted an offer by Harrods for an exclusive agency which lasted for about a year although there were at least two other agencies. All chassis were delivered to London and Harrods arranged all body building. By August 1912 construction of bodies for the Morgan Runabout ceased in Bromyard as distance from Malvern and increasing demand for the car was beyond the ability of Albert Pettifer to provide successfully. Instead HFS used the resources of William Clare Coach Builders, ½ mile from the Morgan Co. Works.

The panels for Pettifer bodies were shaped in his tinsmith’s shop which occupied the upper floor of the small detached building in Tin Pan Alley, between Broad and Rowberry streets. They were assembled on the chassis in the garage. The wooden patterns for the body patterns were cut in the upper floor of the building across the yard. In those early years of the motor car, manufacturers did not build their own bodies and supplied the chassis “bare”. It is possible that Pettifer used his experience from building the Morgan bodies to offer a body-building service to other car owners in the area.

Connection between HFS/Malvern College/Pettifers/Stoke Lacy and the Morgan Prototype
HFS was also a keen cyclist and would cycle from Malvern to Stoke Lacy. He tried a motor cycle but after a short while turned his thoughts to a ‘cyclecar’ which would be light and flexible to accommodate hills and poor roads around the area. In Malvern, his friend was William J. Stephenson-Peach, engineering master at Malvern College. HFS was an engineer but his true talent lay in his ability to merge the best features of contemporary design to create the simplest yet most efficient vehicle of its type adding his own additions like independent suspension, better weight distribution and reduced weight in the braised chassis. Items were
bought from local suppliers and the body framework was made of wood in the carpenter’s shop. The 3-wheel prototype was tested on his frequent visits to his family in Stoke Lacy during 1909 and the stables would have been used also as temporary workshop as modifications were made en route. Finally the crude model was entrusted to A.E. Pettifer of Bromyard where his workmen’s expert skills could produce high quality brazing to create the supports, chassis and body parts in his tinsmith’s shop and garage on Rowberry Street.

Hugh Langrishe 2010
Pettifers in Broad St, Tin Pan Alley is to the left
Pettifers Grage in Rowberry Steet
HFS Morgan in the Runabout

An exciting new initiative, Food Stories of Bromyard, by the BDLHS will be officially launched on the 3rd of April, between 5 and 8pm in the Oak Room at the Falcon Hotel in Bromyard. As refreshments will be served we would appreciate that you email Jayne at jayne@foodscapes.co.uk letting her know you will be attending by 27th March.

Jayne Bradley (a freelance food project manager) has been interviewing local farmers and food producers for the archive, with a grant awarded by HM Government, Cultural Development Fund.

She has interviewed 8 local farmers and producers. The interviews will go into our archive. For a sneak preview of one of the interviews click on the image to the right.

She has also created a map for visitors to Bromyard (above) which will be available across the town. The map will pinpoint all the significant food locations across the area. People will also be able to go online and download a recording of the best of the clips from the oral history interviews.

Jayne was keen for visitors to our town to be able to find out more about past and present stories of farming and food production in the area and to feel connected to Bromyard’s significant food history. Jayne wants to continue to develop awareness of the amazing food economy of the town and the rich history of agriculture in the area. She wants to put Bromyard on the Food Map and Food Stories of Bromyard is another step in that direction.