I was pleased to be able to contribute some family history to the Sussex Gardens Trust (SGT) recently. My father Roger, now in his 90s used to work for Knights Nursery in Hailsham, a company being researched for an item in the SGT yearbook. 

William Knight (1828-1911) was born in Shermanbury in West Sussex and grew up on a farm. As a boy he worked for his uncle, a market gardener in Henfield. It was here he met the botanist William Borrer (1781-1862) who helped him cultivate a lifelong interest in horticulture. 

Borrer recognised William’s talents and arranged for him work at the prestigious Kew Gardens in London. Although he enjoyed the work and learning more about botany, William found that his wages were poor and returned to Sussex. In 1849, he married Sarah Baker (a gardener’s daughter) in Portslade and they moved to Hailsham where William secured work at the rope-manufacturers Burfield & Son Ltd. 

Being a talented gardener, William was soon winning prizes at local flowers-shows. In September 1854 he exhibited at the Eastbourne Horticulture Show where he won several prizes including first prize for balsams, cut flowers, asters, dahlias, greenhouse plants, specimen plants, verbenas, dessert apples, and nectarines. He also got second prize for cockscombs, fuchsias, cucumbers and a ‘tray of mixed vegetables’. He exhibited in several different shows every year and in one year managed to win over 230 awards. In fact he did so well with the prize money, by 1858, he was able to buy two and a half acres of land in Ersham Road, Hailsham where he set himself up as a seedsman, greengrocer and florist. 

In 1878, William became seriously ill and vowed that, should he recover, he would build a chapel.   He retired to Cuckfield and was true to his word and built the Jirah Chapel in Sussex Road Haywards Heath. To oversee the building he lived in Jirah House, Cuckfield and when the church was completed in 1879 became the pastor there. 

Back in Hailsham, the nursery was handed over to his family to run and it went from strength-to-strength, even developing a new variety of berry called the ‘Hailshamberry’ in the 1920s.

In 1929 the nursery became a Limited Company but it was still being run by members of the Knight family; the Hillmans who were William’s nephews. They expanded into the garden design business and reports suggested that they supplied plants around the world and were responsible for planting many of the saplings in the tree-lined streets of Eastbourne. 

One of the Knight’s employees in the 1950s was my father, Roger Gordon.  I interviewed him last year and asked him about his time there. This is what he told me…

I worked for Knight’s Nurseries in the 1950s and it was a very happy time for me. 

The company was one of the largest employers in the Hailsham area. Their headquarters were in Ersham Road, Hailsham but they also had land at Hellingly by the A22. 

When I applied for the job, I had an interview with one of the directors, Albert Hillman at his home address on the corner of Windsor Road and Ersham Road, Hailsham.  The other directors were Albert’s brother (I think his name was Henry) and John and Reg Saunders. 

I was employed as a lorry driver and they had three vehicles which I drove; a tipper lorry, an open-backed lorry and a large van in which I drove men to various jobs.  There were two ‘gangs’ who often constructed completely new gardens for clients.  If they needed a lawn, I would collect turf from Winter’s in Common Lane, Berwick and soil from Selmeston.  I used to fill the back of the lorry from a large pit of good soil. I remember sometimes in the summer, I would take my shirt off and the land owner used to say I was ‘a knight without his armour’!

The van had benches in the back and I would drop the men off in the morning and collect them in the afternoon to bring them back to Hailsham. They sometimes planted whole orchards for clients and when this happened, I would help John Saunders with setting out lines of string to show the men where the trees should be planted. 

I had regular rounds making deliveries to private houses and garden shops in Eastbourne, Bexhill, Hastings and Battle.  Sometimes I delivered plants as far away as Maidstone and I remember on one delivery into Kent, I had to turn back as the River Medway had flooded at Yalding.  Some shops were bad payers and I had to insist on being paid before I made a delivery. 

I often made long journeys, such as to Bournemouth and Hertfordshire in order to collect trees which were ready to plant.  Sometimes I would take my mother and later, my mother-in-law with me to give them a day out.  When I wasn’t driving, I sometimes worked at Hellingly to do ‘budding’ (grafting) rose bushes.   The train line to Hellingly Hospital ran alongside the land and I remember the tram passing on its way to deliver coal. 

Knight’s Nursery used to have a display at the Chelsea Flower Show every year and I used to take up all the equipment the garden designers and workmen needed and helped to set up their stand. 

I taught John Saunders, one of the directors to drive in his Ford Popular.  We were busy throughout the year. I remember during one trip it started to snow so heavily that I could hardly see.  The snow was so thick I could only just see the hedges on either side of the road so drove in the middle of the road to get back safely back to Hailsham. Luckily there were no other vehicles out in that weather!

The directors of the company were very religious. The Saunders brothers used to preach in the chapels at Upper Dicker and Heathfield. When the American evangelist Billy Graham visited England, the whole workforce was given a day off to go to London to see him. Some of them even went up onto the stage to be blessed by him. 

I used to take items such as lawnmowers to be sharpened at Martin & Company who had a shop near to Hailsham Station. It was here I met a nice girl in the office, Jean Clark. I asked if she would come to the cinema with me and she said yes!.

I proposed to her five days later and we were married within the year.  The nursery was very good and offered us one of their houses in Windsor Road, Hailsham but we decided to live in Eastbourne and Jean’s father found me a better paid job working on the railway. “

Knights Nursery traded until 1993.   The site of the nursery, where my father worked in Ersham Road, Hailsham, is now built over with housing but at least the estate is named ‘Knight’s Garden’ after William Knight.   I always smile when I drive past as, if it wasn’t for Knight’s Nursery my parents would not have met and I wouldn’t be here! 

Sources:

National Newspaper Archives

Gordon Family Archives

The Jirah Chapel, Haywards Heath – www.haywardsheathchapel.info

The Sussex Gardens Trust  – www.sussexgardenstrust.org.uk

Hailsham Historical Society – www.hailshamhistoricalsociety.co.uk