Rob Harvey's memories of the Harvey's nursery garden
Hilary Roadley chatted to Rob Feb 2023
Family background
This following brief history of the family background connected to Whitehead, Harvey and Harston Nurseries was written by Rob.
My grandfather Sidney Harvey was born in 1894 in Plumstead, Kent. When he left school at the age of 14 he went to work on a cucumber nursery. During the early spring cucumbers would sell for 10/- (shilling) each. He liked taking lots of photos so have many of his life and work.
In 1912 at the age of 18 he joined the Royal Navy as a sick berth attendant. He kept his naval records. During the First World War he served in the Middle East patrolling the Red Sea between Basra and Bombay. Towards the end of the war he was posted to Cambridge where there was a naval research establishment in King’s Parade. Here he met Winifred Whitehead who worked for Winton Smiths butchers, well-known in Cambridge, and also farmers on New Rd/Barton Rd in Haslingfield. Winifred worked in the food-processing plant- where meals/pies were made. (Winifred’s mother was a Reynolds (Reynolds sweets). After they were married in 1920 he was posted to China, again patrolling in a Gunboat, up the Yangtze to Shanghai protecting European interests whilst the Chinese civil wars broke out.
1924 after 12 years’ service he was paid off. He returned to Cambridge finding work at the Cambridge Scientific Company making medical scientific instruments. He got told off once for not making them accurately enough. They lived in Castle Hill with his in-laws. On finding his wife pregnant, new accommodation became urgent and one day whilst on a bike ride to Hauxton he stopped at the King’s Head to wet his thirst. Upon the bar a sign said new landlord required. He duly applied and was appointed; his accommodation solved. During the day he worked at the Scientific Company, at night he pulled pints. The King’s Head (photo 2) was opposite the Green and The Lane in Hauxton, (but is now a private residence). Rob’s dad ‘Bert’ (Albert Sidney Harvey) was born in 1924 in the pub. Bert went to Harston school from age 10-14 as his parents wouldn’t pay for him to go to the grammar school even though he had a scholarship.
In 1930 he was made redundant and needing more income than the pub could provide, he started selling plants on Cambridge Market. Needing more produce than his allotment in Hauxton (by motorway bridge) could provide he rented a small field in Harston, where the nursery is now at 131 high Street. It was part of the old Red Field (pre-inclosure). At this point George Whitehead, his brother-in-law, also needed accommodation for his wife and child, so they moved into the King’s Head and went into the nursery business as Whitehead & Harvey, running stalls at Royston and Cambridge. There were not many rooms in the pub with two families there. George’s wife, Lilian Whitehead, would always be seen with a cigarette in her hand. Sidney Harvey is shown in photo about 1953 with the Whitehead & Harvey signage on the canvas cover side of the truck.
This happy position continued through the war years, my father joining them after demob from the RAF. Bert had his own stall on Cambridge Market and didn’t want to join his dad but did help his parents who had a stall 5.5 days in Cambridge and 2 days in Royston. After starting his own family, ie me, in the same room in the King’s Head where he was born, he started to build his own house on the field Whitehead and Harvey had acquired in 1940 in Little Shelford. Bert and family moved there one year after Rob was born. Rob’s godfather was Mr Joplin, a parish councillor – Joplin Way, Hauxton named after him. There were only supposed to be temporary buildings so he first put up a prefab, then later built around it. Whilst helping to put the roof on this house, George felt ill and retired to bed, dying two days later of pneumonia.
This death ended the partnership, his widow withdrew her share and retired to Attleborough. This left my father and grandfather to form Harvey and son. My grandfather retired from the King’s Head at the age of 62 (pub landlords were expected to retire at 60) in 1955 and moved into a new bungalow on the Harston site. This was built in 1956 – bit of cowboy building- they didn’t include one layer of brick leaving the ceiling lower than expected. Rob’s grandparents died in 1970/71 & along with his parents are all buried, in pairs, in Hauxton churchyard. After the grandparents died the bungalow was rented out until Rob and wife Jo moved in Sep 1980 after their marriage.
Harston Nursery
The first glasshouses were built in Harston in the late 1930s laboriously by hand mixed concrete. They were heated by Robin Hood coal fired boilers some of which came second hand from Cambridge Colleges. Coal used to be purchased direct from the colliery and delivered to Harston Station; they had 48 hours to unload and transport it to the nursery.
Photo 18 shows Len Warren in front of one of the glasshouses in Harston with the chimney connected to the boiler and the hot water pipes leading off it. The hot water moved around the pipes from the thermal sython boiler, heating up, rising, moving along the black pipes you can see, then sinking back down to the boiler again. To keep the glasshouses warm they would light the fire in the boiler about 3.30pm to get the water hot; then later they’d go to the pub and on the way back home they would stoke it up a bit to keep it warm overnight. Once, probably around the 1930s, they had a tramp in the glasshouse as he sought warmth for the nights and they left him there as long as he stoked the boiler. It was called a Robin Hood boiler- they came in all different sizes. The chimney you see in the photo is still there today.
From 1930s onwards, when the Harston Nursery started, they grew lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and bedding plants as shown in 1984 picture. (The family always won the best plants for outside their public house.) They also grew mustard and cress. First the cress, then 3 days later the mustard seeds put in. They picked and bunched three quarters cress to one quarter mustard for sale. They grew an acre of beetroot at Shelford but brought it to Harston to boil in their beetroot boiler.
The Harvey’s also took some of their Thoday neighbour’s produce to market and sold it for them. Today lots of the small nurseries have gone.
Photo 15 shows Len Warren to left, who worked at the Harston Nursery, from the age of 14 until retiring at 60! Bert Harvey is to right, with a display of cauliflowers grown at the Shelford Nursery. Len’s cat Tom lived in the Harston glasshouses and every day when Len arrived it came to meet him. Len lived on the Green at Hauxton. His father had been gassed in WW1. Len Warren would manage any sales back at the Harston Nursery as people often just turned up to buy plants- particularly bedding plants- a tradition carried on from Rob’s father and grandfather.
They also grew mushrooms. In the mushroom photo (12) you can see the heating pipes along the side. There was galvanised iron on top of a bench which was spread with horse manure. When the manure had rotted and the heat had built up they sprinkled on the mushroom spore they had bought, which was like dust. Then they put the capping layer on of lime and peat, and waited for it to grow. The dark layer above would be another bench with another layer of manure for more mushrooms to grow on.
Photo 19 shows George Whitehead to left and Bert Harvey to right, with large cyclamens grown for sale in front of the cold frames, with aluminium glasshouse behind.
Sidney Harvey was the grower and his son Bert was the seller. When Rob left school he took over the growing from his grandfather at Hauxton while Len Warren continued to look after the growing at Harston.
Photo 13 below also shows the coldframes, behind the visitors, that were to the side of the glasshouses. Once the vegetables plants eg cabbages and bedding plants eg blue Lobellias, white Alyssum, Marigolds, red Salvias & Aubrietia in Autumn, were grown initially in the glass houses they were put into the cold frames to harden off. The photowas taken post war, around 1950 because there are relatively new aluminium glasshouses in the background.
Photos showing the changes to the Nursery
The aerial photo 6 of the nursery, taken in 1983 August shows the bungalow and glasshouses behind, but also the petrol station/garage to the left when John & Kay Mills ran it. They lived in the house by the garage and behind them lived Sheila & John Miller. Sidney Deacon & family lived over the road, opposite the Harvey’s. Mrs Deacon was a bit of a recluse. Sidney played the piano.
Down the driveway next to the turning area you can see the shed where Rob’s wife, Jo, had the vegetable shop from 9-12am on Saturdays when her children were little in late 80s/early 90s. When her children got older Jo went to work on their market stall in Cambridge Market for quite a few years.
Photo 7 was taken in 1984 and shows more clearly all the glasshouses, with their old van in front with the sign still on. At one point the Harveys rented a small field of land behind the petrol station houses to grow more vegetables on. When Jo and Rob were first married the bungalow’s front garden was ploughed up to grow vegetables, easier to keep than grass.
In1986 the four individual glasshouses at the back were replaced with one large one. They had a driver from Haverhill with a big digger to do the job. They managed to get a 40% EU grant for doing it- this involved paying the full amount first, then getting 40% back for horticultural improvements. Some of the old concrete and bricks were difficult to remove so they used them for the floor where the lorry was on the photo.
Photo 8 shows the large six part greenhouse in 1995 and two old greenhouses remaining behind. It also shows the extension to the bungalow in 1993 and the changes to the petrol garage next door where the bungalows now there behind the garage were built. The long lane to the right of the nursery goes to Hill Top Farm (once Brickfield House). They have had to have their house underpinned at one time. Russell Holloway, Mrs Gatward’s grandson loved horses and had stables at hill Top Farm. Tony Gatward at one point worked at the Vet’s school in Madingley Rd.
The Harvey’s would hear in 1980s the lorries of their neighbour (Mr Prior)to right/north starting up and the gate opening as they left about 11-12 midnight to collected up fruit and vegetables from London to take to Smiths Wholesalers and others in Cambridge. Mr Prior had two daughters who went to MVC.
When Cheryl Marriott’s (Smith then) family lived in bungalow at 135 High St in 1950s & 60s, as a teenager Cheryl would help out at Harvey’s nursery, and on and off over the years, including at the market.
The 2006 photo shows they had turned the poly tunnel round so it lay roughly east-west instead of north-south. The old glasshouses at the back are still there but not used and now overgrown with vegetation. They have added a garage next to their bungalow.
The Harvey’s also ran the Hauxton site since 1940s and this is where Rob worked when he took over in 1972 when he left school.
When they started the Hauxton Nursery they bought a glasshouse from the model nursery next to Churchill College and John Mills, who worked for Turners transport too it to Hauxton for them where they re-erected it. In between the glasshouses you can see an open patch with benches were they grow their plants.
The big house there by the driveway was built for Rob’s parents in 1976.
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