Wherry & Sons Ltd

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. 

Wherry's gave up grocery trading on 3rd April 1970 after 160 years in business. The premises in North Street, including the small shop with the distinctive bow window, were later sold and demolished to make way for the Burghley Centre development that opened in 1989. Twenty-three people employed in the business lost their jobs but some were offered alternative employment. The chairman at that time was Mr E K Wherry who blamed rising costs for the closure and increasing competition from the supermarkets but he emphasised that the company would continue with its other activities. 

He said in a statement that the company had bought the old railway station site in Bourne where a new pea-picking plant was being installed in the goods shed and they intended to maintain their reputation as the best in Britain for the supply of dried peas for human consumption.

The present day business is one of pulse specialists, pea processors and purveyors. Specialised trading had 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.

See also    William Wherry     Albert E K Wherry

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