Notcutts Family History
Early Broughton Road
Nursery Management: 1897 - 1945
Shows: 1897 - 1945
The Nursery Market: 1897 - 1945
Nursery Production: 1897 - 1945
Family and Management: 1945 - Present
The Market: 1945 - Present
Field Production: 1945 - Present
Propagation and Liners: 1945 - Present
Containers : 1965 - Present
Waterers Nurseries
Mattocks Roses
Shows: 1945 - Present
Notcutts Landscape: 1902 - Present
Notcutts Garden Centres

Woodbridge, at the head of the River Deben estuary, has a coastal climate. The heat of summer is often muted by cool winds off the North Sea and the ravages of winter are softened slightly.

Notcutts Garden Centre and Head Office stand on land which was originally owned by the Woodbridge Priory, dissolved by Henry VIII. The grounds were purchased from the Crown by Thomas Seckford, the Woodbridge benefactor and then passed into the hands of the Carthew family. A nurseryman called Thomas Wood purchased the land in 1749 and started Woods Nursery.

The original nursery site is in a sheltered valley of sandy soil, fed by a small stream, thus creating ideal conditions for raising young plants. The nursery was laid out so plants requiring damp conditions were grown near the stream, whilst those which could tolerate drier soil were grown higher, on the south facing slope.

In 1784, a visiting Frenchman, Francois de La Rouchefoucauld wrote, "I saw nothing but two nursery gardens near the town, one of 9 acres and the other of 4 or 5. They were full of small green trees, some of which were priced very low."

Thomas Wood passed the nursery to his sons, and eventually it came to John Wood, thus remaining within the Wood family for almost 150 years. Business was conducted principally with the owners of large country estates and of larger town houses. The nursery supplied many different types and varieties of fruit and forestry trees, as relatively few ornamental plants (as we know them today) were then available.

John Wood's catalogue of Fruit Trees and Roses, published in October 1895, lists no fewer than 95 apples, 35 pears, 25 plums, 16 cherries, 20 trained peaches, 7 nectarines and 123 varieties of roses. He produced his last full catalogue in the autumn of 1896 and died without succession in 1897. The nursery with its fine, old Georgian house, was put up for auction on 11th February 1897.

Notcutt's Family History

What an extraordinary name. Where did it come from?

In Elizabethan times it was probably "Northcote" as in those days names were spelt as they sounded, so in a West Country dialect it evolved to "Norcott". By the time William Notcutt moved from Wrington in Somerset to Ipswich in 1724 to become the pastor at the Tacket Street Meeting House, it had taken its current form - "Notcutt".

The early Notcutts were ministers, then linen traders, before Thomas Foster Notcutt (1752-1803) became a lawyer. There were lawyers in six generations of Notcutts until 1988, with 5 given the name of Stephen Abbott Notcutt. The father of the first Stephen had married into the Abbott family and it had been made clear that, if their name was perpetuated, family money would be left to the eldest son. The money soon ran out but the tradition continues and the youngest, Stephen Abbott Notcutt (VI) was born in 1982.

In Victorian England many professional men were interested in the natural sciences, and the Notcutt family was no different. Stephen Abbott Notcutt (III) had 2 sons. Stephen Abbott Notcutt (IV), born in 1865, had to join the family legal practice. He won a scholarship to Cambridge, where he took a National Science Tripos degree before reading for a BSc in Law in London.

His younger brother Roger Crompton Notcutt (later known as RCN) was born in 1869. He was in a way more fortunate as he was not burdened by obligations to enter the legal practice. It was recommended that, due to ill health, he should pursue an out-door life. Fortunately he also had a keen interest in nature, particularly in the growing of plants. This was an interest he was able to pursue when in his teens, he acquired the Broughton Road Nursery in Ipswich.

In 1901 RCN married Maud Hetty Smith Fielding of Ipswich and in 1902 Roger Fielding Notcutt, known as 'Tom', was born, later followed in 1906 by Hetty and Marjorie in 1912 .

Tom took a Natural Science degree at Cambridge, like his uncle, SAN (IV), before him. Whilst training at Edinburgh Royal Botanical Gardens, he met Jean Macpherson and they married in 1929, two years after Tom returned to the nursery. In 1934 their son Charles was born. Tom's technical training was invaluable and this soon became apparent in the catalogues. In 1935, Tom, working with his father, published "Flowering Cherries" in the Journal of the RHS.

Early Broughton Road

Starting purely as an amateur, Roger Crompton Notcutt began by growing vegetables. He subsequently devoted himself to the breeding and production of Chrysanthemums for which he became well known in the 1890's. He was a successful exhibitor at the summer and autumn shows of the Ipswich Horticultural Society, with much of the interest in these shows traced to his influence, as his skill attracted other leading horticulturists to compete with him. He first experienced show success in 1889 at the Ipswich Society Show when he received the National Chrysanthemum Society Silver Medal for the Premier Bloom of the show. This encouraged him further and in 1895 he received the Royal Horticultural Society's Award of Merit for Chrysanthemum 'Edith Tabor', said to be "the best large yellow Chrysanthemum yet produced."

Broughton Road Nursery was composed mainly of glasshouses and frames, and during the 1890's approximately 45 staff were employed on the nursery.

Specimen palms and other plants were often hired out to decorate large country houses for balls and other events.

Floristry (in particular wreath making) was also a significant activity; ideal for a chrysanthemum grower, as important funerals required an enormous number of wreaths.

RCN produced two Chrysanthemum catalogues per year, in January and November. The catalogue of January 1893 lists 307 varieties, split into early flowering varieties for August to October, and other varieties, flowering September to November.

Catalogues were also produced for hardy perennials and herbaceous plants as well as for bedding plants, dahlias, begonias and geraniums and subsequently for general nursery stock. In 1900, hints on the culture of dahlias were included at the back of the catalogue. This tradition of useful and informative pages continues to the present day, as can be seen at the back of the Notcutts Book of Plants.

At the age of 28, RCN realized the business was outgrowing the Broughton Road Nursery, and was ready for expansion. The auction of Woods nursery in Woodbridge on 11th February 1897, came at a most opportune time.