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“The lives of many
Tiptree folk were once
governed by the
factory hooter”
Today the powerful blast from the steam boilers can still be
heard morning, breaktime, lunchtime and home time. The Wilkin
family house was adjacent to the factory and it is said that
from the observation tower, at one time the whole of the estate
could be seen through field glasses. Earlier still when Mr. Wilkin
would ride his horse out to the fields, a bell at the very top
of the tower would be rung to signal his lunch was ready.
Five miles away from Tiptree, on the riverside at Tollesbury,
the company had a second farm. A third farm is located at Goldhanger,
also on the side of the River Blackwater. If the wind is blowing
in the right direction, workers in the fields on both these farms
can clearly hear the factory hooter. It is said that each day,
the worker responsible for blowing the hooter used to solemnly
check his watch according to a large clock in the window of the
local watchmaker, so as to sound the right times for his colleagues.
At lunchtime, the watchmaker would equally carefully correct
his clock to the time of the factory hooter for it was never
wrong.
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“Each year in late
springtime, the
caravanners descend
on Tiptree”
The fruit is picked by caravanners, students and locals, with
caravanners forming the largest part of this vast army of pickers.
On the busiest days, up to 1,000 pickers can be found crouched
down in the strawberry fields picking diligently, picking the
best fruits for use in the factory.
The caravanners stay on the Wilkin’s farm at nearby Tolleshunt
Knights. Here you can stay throughout the season, surrounded
by fruit fields and orchards, looking out across the River Blackwater
where Wilkins have two other farms. Many of the caravanners return
year after year and receive long service awards after twenty
one years. The advantage to the business is that they know exactly
what standards are required and work very well as a team.
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“Fruit picking at
Tiptree starts in June”
Picking is at its busiest at the height of
the strawberry season and goes right on until October when the
last of the plums and quinces will be picked. By late October
the caravanners and students will all have gone home and all
that remains is to pick the medlars a task only entrusted to
the farm workers.
Medlars are traditionally left out until after the first frosts,
or Bonfire Night, November 5th. One of the strangest fruits grown
at Tiptree, the medlar looks like a cross between a rose hip
and an apple. The fruit will be cooked and squeezed through a
sieve, the skins thrown away. Medlar jelly is a beautiful red
preserve, with a wonderful spicy flavour that goes well with
cooked meats, especially pork.
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“Medlar picking is entrusted only to the experienced”
The farm workers use picking baskets for the
medlars. The picking basket is a strange contraption made from
a plywood tube with a canvass insert. The fruit is collected
from the tree and placed into the basket. Once full, the picker
will take the basket, still hanging around his neck, to the waiting
tractor and trailer. There he will release the button at the
bottom of the canvas inner to open and the fruit will fall gently
into the boxes that are used to transport it to the factory.
Once the medlars have been picked , there will be no more fruit
until the next year, although the factory goes on to work with
Mediterranean fruits such as oranges, apricots and peaches.
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“In the early 1990’s
Wilkin & Sons
opened a Jam Shop”
The Jam Shop is sited in an old tractor shed close to the factory.
Carefully restored, the building has open studwork and a high
roof with the original beams and windows. Later a tea room was
opened in the same building, seating up to eighty five visitors.
Traditional waitress service is the order of the day and all
the food is home cooked and prepared. Of course the best jams
and marmalades are served, together with ‘Tiptree’ tea.
In the summertime, many hundreds of visitors to the area call
at the jam factory to see the museum and try the tea room “special”,
Little Scarlet jam and scones served with ‘Tiptree’
tea. In the winter months, the place is buzzing with visitors
looking for things to give at Christmas – jam has always
been a highly acceptable gift.
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“Up to your neck
in oranges”
On one occasion following a heavy snowfall, the farm hands were
working on a tiffle in the factory – oranges were arriving
fresh from Seville and the farm men were washing them.
Washing oranges involved taking the wooden trays of already-sported
fruit, emptying them onto a conveyor which took them into a bath
and out the other end, then catching them in the now-empty trays.
The men at the start of the process surreptitiously built a stockpile
of oranges at their end. Meanwhile a stack of wooden trays had
baler twine neatly passed through their slats, tying the top
to the bottom.
At the appropriate moment, the whole stockpile was shoved into
the washer, the recipient man was forced to work at an incredible
pace and then to cap it all, as he reached for the next empty
tray the whole pile came down on top of him, followed closely
by thousands of oranges flowing bountifully from the conveyor
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“By their fruits
shall ye know them”
A.C, Wilkin was by all accounts a man of remarkable energy.
Not only did he fight for the development of the “Crab & Winkle”
railway from Kelvedon to Tollesbury, he also worked hard to form
an old age relief scheme in Tiptree.
In just twelve years up to 1911 (when State Pensions began),
some
£4600 was distributed. The company built houses for its
workers in and around the village of Tiptree so that by 1910
it owned twenty-nine cottages. Today many of the workers still
live on the estate.
In 1917 the Wilkin Provident Trust was established, to receive
a share of the profits for the employees, with the motto “By
their fruits shall ye know them”. C.J. Wilkin saw to it
that the apportionment of profits was closely linked to the value
of each individual in the business. The company instigated its
own minimum pension scheme and made service awards to its loyal
workers.
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“Planning for the future”
Nestling quietly between the factory and a row of houses for
the staff can be found a small pocket of peace and tranquillity.
An orchard of just a dozen trees, planted more than 100 years
ago to provide mulberries for Tiptree’s most expensive
jam.
The trees are old and brittle and the fruit is difficult to gather
in. The rich dark juice covers the clothing of even the most
careful of pickers and will not easily wash off. The fruit, once
transported by tractor and trailer to the factory, is all hand-sorted
and prepared, each individual berry being hand-cored by skilled
staff.
A number of new mulberry trees, planted at the turn of the millennium,
will bear their first fruit in perhaps ten or fifteen years.
You can be sure that the family business of Wilkin and Sons Limited
will be waiting patiently to make even more of their extraordinary
Tiptree preserves, for those who want something a little out
of the ordinary, something quite special.
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“Zeppelin brought down”
Older Essex folk still have memories of the Zeppelin brought down
at nearby Great Wigborough in 1916. As it passed over Tiptree, the
crew were desperate to gain height and reach the coast: Anything
that could be was thrown overboard to land in the fields surrounding
the factory.
With dawn came the discovery on the farm of the great airship’s
logbook and a large machine gun complete with ammunition. One young
couple even went so far as to name their daughter Zeppelina. |
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“Tiptree before the Wilkins”
TIPTREE. The name of a high quality jam, but just as importantly,
a village in the heart of Essex countryside and the place where
in 1885 Arthur Charles Wilkin first experimented with jam-making.
In the Iron Age, Tiptree was the meeting place for two great
tribes, the Catuvellauni and the Trinovantes. Roman settlers
preferred the land around Colchester and Maldon to the poor soil
of Tiptree. In the post-Roman period, a Saxon named Tippa came
from the Blackwater settlements to a plateau on which stood a
tree, later to become known as Tippa’s Tree.
Tiptree receives no mention in the Domesday Book but by 1204,
in the reign of King John, a vast wasteland of over 1000 acres
was recorded, known as Tiptree Heath. Soon a small priory was
established, but by the 16th century, only two Black Canons remained
and the area remained largely unpopulated.
Court records next show that during the 17th Century gypsies
and vagabonds made the heath a dark and wild area. In the 18th
century, smugglers used it as a sorting ground for goods landed
from the Blackwater estuary.
Farmers turned a deaf ear to strange noises in the night and
often awoke to find the horses lathered and a keg of brandy in
the porch. In Victorian days, as they travelled to Maldon and
Witham, Wilkin men would still carry heavy sticks to ward off
vagabonds.
So this was to be the place that would eventually become known
the world over for its famous preserves.
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