| There has been an unbroken line of family control at Wherry
& Sons Ltd since the company started in business at Bourne in
1806, the year following the Battle of Trafalgar. Edward Wherry, as
were his forebears, was the proprietor of the village store at
nearby Edenham. In 1806 he purchased the premises of John Gibson of
Bourne, located on both sides of North Street. These he stocked with
groceries and other goods in local demand and business prospered.
When his elder sons William and Edward left school they joined their
father and the firm became Edward Wherry & Sons. They added a
wholesale business that rapidly expanded.
William's son William Robert entered the business as a 15-year old apprentice in 1856, and later took control of the grocery department and of the buying of drapery. He also developed the trade in seed and grain, thereby laying the foundation of the present business activities. He became a county alderman and Justice of the Peace and under his direction the agricultural side of the business developed considerably. For storage of seed a large waterside warehouse in Eastgate was purchased and a windmill was operated in North Road. Alderman Wherry was possibly the first in this country to recognise the need in the food processing industry for a complete dried pea trading operation. This side of the business started in 1878-89. Peas were grown by farmer customers and taken to Bourne where they were shelled by local people in their own homes. This continued until 1902 when the factory in Church Lane was built but this was replaced in 1967 when the 14-acre site of the old railway complex in Station Yard was purchased from British Rail and a modern pea processing plant erected.
The present-day business is one of pulse specialists, pea processors and purveyors. Specialised trading started to evolve in the dried pea market in the early 1900s and as technology and plant breeding progressed, so did the company's expertise and association with the dried pulse crop in general. Complementing the company's trade in pulses for human consumption, its seed business has grown to be one of the leading producers of pea and bean seed in the U K today. Success in this direction is partly due to the excellent varieties that have been marketed in the U K from exclusive agency agreements with plant breeders from around the world. Exports are made regularly and over twenty countries have been supplied in recent years, including seed to Europe and pulses for human consumption to the Middle and Far East. Return to HOME PAGE MAIN INDEX
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