Elphick's of Lewes was primarily a seed business. Founded in 1823, the business survived for nearly two hundred years through the world wars, changing tastes and developments in gardening.
A History of Seedsmen
According to John Harvey in “Nurseries, Nurserymen and Seedsmen,” The Garden: A Celebration of One Thousand Years of British Gardening, until the 16th century, religious houses were the chief purveyors of plants and seeds. After the dissolution of the monasteries in 1540, the orchards and gardens were passed to new landlords, and the first palatial mansions were built. Nurseries popped up to serve them in the laying out of pleasure gardens and planted parks. Specialised shops appeared around London with an international trade in seeds and bulbs. Two separate trades emerged, where nurserymen would turn to seedsmen for seeds. Despite the Napoleonic Wars, the appetite for gardening grew and nurseries and seed companies were established in leaps and bounds. By the 19th century, every town had one or more shop, often run by generations of the same family, such as Elphick & Son Ltd. of Lewes.
Elphick & Son shopfront (Circa 1930) by E. J. BedfordGarden Museum
After the Napoleonic wars George Elphick sold his farm in Sussex and started a barge operating service which would later develop into Elphick & Sons Ltd. They moved coal, chalk and building materials along the river. As the business grew, George Elphick decided to convert the ground floor of his family home at 18 Cliffe High Street, Lewes, into the companies office. Ever the entrepreneur, he doubled the space up as a shop selling farming supplies and seed, which was the beginning of the shop as we know of it today.
The building itself is one of special architectural and historical interest, becoming a Grade II listed building in 1952. It made for a unique shop, with an overhanging storey supported by iron columns. George Elphick, ‘corn coal & seed merchant’, is first listed as a resident in 1861.
Black and White portrait of Samuel Elphicks (Circa 1870) by UnknownGarden Museum
George Elphick retired in 1879 and died two years later, by which time his son Samuel, pictured here, was running the business with the help of his wife Caroline. When Samuel died in 1896, his wife Caroline was left to run the business with their son, also called Samuel. By the 1880s, barge traffic had declined due to the competition of the railways and cement works, so Samuel and Caroline decided to dispose of the barges. Due to the mechanisation of farming, the demand for seeds and fertilisers had increased.
The next few years were a period of consolidation and expansion, with new Elphick’s branches opening on Western Road in Lewes, and in Crowborough and Seaford. Samuel’s son Cyril began training at the Seaford branch, aged 16, ant at Hurst & Son in preparation for taking his place in the business.
Assorted Seed Measuring 'Spoons' from Elphick's of Lewes (1900/1925) by Elphick'sGarden Museum
People were buying large quantities of seeds and a plethora of scoops were designed to measure each type of seed, from the tiniest of spoons for geraniums to large ones for peas.
The War Years
One of the reasons why Elphick’s succeeded for almost 200 years is because it was adaptable. Cyril took up the challenge of running the business during the war and the shop didn’t close once. In fact, the business thrived and, in 1942, Cyril opened a branch in Eastbourne. At its height Elphick’s employed some 50 staff and a fleet of vehicles. Anthony Elphick, Cyril's son, recalls that during this period huge quantities of vegetable seed, corn and fertilizer where provided ‘to schools, the estates, convents, county councils, allotment associations, private houses and the army’.
Cloches Versus Hitler (1939) by Chase Protected CultivationGarden Museum
Elphick’s produced a booklet called ‘Cloches vs. Hitler’ as part of the Dig for Victory campaign, written under the pseudonym Charles Wyse-Gardner. Printed in the same format as their catalogues, this guide to intensive vegetable culture advertised the Continuous Cloche, ‘Britain’s answer to Hitler’. It aimed to encourage the Home Front to ‘make the best use of the Continuous Cloche’ in order to ‘yield more food’. The language was persuasive; ‘the resistance of a whole nation depends directly on its food supply […] The Continuous Cloche is the most formidable weapon in this war of aggression on the soil’.
The Annual Show
The one thing the war did put a stop to for Elphick’s was the Annual Show, which Cyril had introduced in 1932. Customers were invited to exhibit vegetables and flowers grown from the company’s seeds, with monetary prizes awarded for the best entries in a number of different categories. The show brought the town together, and during the war weekly prizes were still awarded for vegetables to keep the spirit of competition alive. It resumed in 1945, less than three months after VE day.
Woman with Prize Cucumber (Circa 1935) by UnknownGarden Museum
At the seventh Annual Show, a record number of 400 entries were made, despite the ‘unfavourable season’. Contestants had to prove their produce was grown from Elphick’s seeds, as stated in the rules: ‘Entries in all classes must be accompanied by Labels, Seed Packets or invoice as supplied at time of purchase’. Industry experts formed the judging panel, including the Vice-President of the Agricultural Seed Trade Association. Often a collection box was sent around for the local hospital, with produce donated at the end of the show.
Two Show Flowers (Circa 1950) by UnknownGarden Museum
These flowers won first prize at an Elphick's show.
Powerful Marketing
Elphicks produced strong marketing materials including catalogues designed in house with distinctive typography, bold colours and images. They were printed predominately at Farncombe & Co, a Lewes-based printing and publishing company, and the inner pages were ornately decorated with prints, illustrations and, later, photographs.
Tomatoes and Beans (Circa 1950) by UnknownGarden Museum
Beautiful portraits of vegetables and flowers were taken by local photographic studio, Edward Reeves. Edward Reeves still stands on the High Street in Lewes where it has been since 1859, and is believed to be the world’s oldest photographic studio. Edward Reeves produced highly artistic portraits for the catalogues that were reminiscent of the Old Dutch Masters’ still life paintings.
Bean Giant Windsor by Charles Jones & Printer's Block for Elphick's Catalogue (1910/1920) by Charles JonesGarden Museum
The subjects were either photographed against plain backdrops or white ink was used to remove the backdrops so that the Elphick’s products pop into focus. These images were then transferred to copper printing blocks.
The process was known as photogravure and was particularly popular in the mass printing of photographs. This method was able to capture the full range of depth within the photographs’ tones, allowing for an almost exact copy of the photographs to be reproduced in the catalogues.
Copper Printer's Blocks for Elphick's Seed Catalogues (1900/1920) by Elphick'sGarden Museum
These copper printing blocks were used on the pages of Elphick’s catalogues and other marketing material.
Sheet of Gummed Elphick's Labels (1927/1963) by UnknownGarden Museum
As well as the catalogues, Elphick’s produced a number of other marketing materials which all helped to convey a strong visual brand: cards would be placed in shops next to produce grown from their seeds; stripy paper bags featured the Elphick’s logo; an Elphick’s calendar was created one year; stickers were applied to beautiful seed packets to prove their products had been tested according to industry standards, and W. H. Smith designed big tin signs for Elphick’s to advertise the company at railway stations.
Tony's Experience
Tony followed in the footsteps of his father Cyril, training in Kelvedon with seed company Hurst & Son. At the turn of the 20th century, Kelvedon was one of the premier seed growing areas of the country. When Tony finished his training in 1960 he joined the family firm, aged 27. He brought a wealth of knowledge about the seed trade gained from his years of training. Elphick’s tried growing its own seed for a few years but eventually went back to buying from Essex since ‘Sussex was too wet’. ‘Nowadays’, Tony says, ‘seed comes from Japan, California and Hungary. We used to get some of our seeds from Van Dijk in Enkhuizen (Netherlands) and from Hungary too. The Hungarian Balint brothers owned Hurst’s and took in a lot of refugees during the Hungarian Revolution of 1956. There was a Doctor of Biology from Hungary who bred a sweetcorn suitable for English conditions. He created hybrids through cross pollination and came up with Kelvedon Glory, which you can still buy today. Ralph Gould was the plant breeder of new varieties at Hurst’s’.
Elphick’s Wallflower Primrose Monarch Seed Sachet (Circa 1960) by Elphick's SeedsGarden Museum
Elphick’s reputation for seeds grew and grew, attracting a stream of high-profile customers including world-famous actors, authors, artists, aristocrats and former-prime minister James Callaghan.
Elphick’s served members of the Bloomsbury set Leonard and Virginia Woolf, Duncan Grant and Vanessa Bell, who lived nearby at Charleston and Monks House. The current Head Gardener at Charleston, Fiona Dennis, is restoring it using the Elphick’s archive to decipher which seeds were bought.
Elphick & Son Stall (Circa 1955) by Manor Park StudioGarden Museum
Although the company specialised in seeds, the Elphick’s motto was ‘Everything for the garden’. Over the years their products changed, following the ebb and flow of trends. Coming out of farming in the 1960s, they drifted into garden supplies. This was a period of great change; the introduction of plastics in 1958 revolutionised gardening, bringing a whole new range of products to the shelves. Cheap, light-weight plastic pots and trays meant that plants could easily be sold in containers rather than as bare-root stock.
Elphick's also sold pet products and home-made wine but from the 1980s onwards, they concentrated exclusively on gardening. Tony explained that this proved a wise move since gardening exploded in popularity, with television shows such as BBC’s Ground Force (1997-2005) reaching 12 million viewers at its peak, rivalling cookery as the latest pastime.
Closure
Everything changed for Elphick’s on 12th October 2000 when torrential rain caused flooding. The company never fully recovered after the flood and the business closed in 2003 unable to compete with the large garden centres out of town. Shopping became a day out and garden centres became leisure destinations; customers travelled by car as a family and had lunch, with all the products they could wish for in one place, play centres for children and other activities designed to improve the experience. It was hard for a seedsman on a narrow high street to keep up with this trend.
Elphick's Pea Onward (c.1960) by Elphick's NurseryGarden Museum
Over the 180 years that Elphick’s was in business, the family proved themselves to be inventive, entrepreneurial and above all, adaptable. Although Elphick’s is unique, it is part of a long history of seedsmen, nurserymen, shops, and garden centres. With National Geographic reporting that 96% of the vegetable seeds available in 1903 have disappeared, what comes next in this long history of the seed trade?
We would like to thank Anthony Elphick for his support in cataloguing the Elphick’s Archive, which is the subject of the Garden Museum Journal No. 38 (2020).
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