Wholesale nursery supplier | Shrubs, trees, hardy plants | A Hill & Sons Ltd

The early days 

In 1920 Alan Hill founded A Hill & Sons Ltd, at the time Alan called his fledgling company A Hill (Nurseryman). This was because the sons were only two in number aged seven and six years old at the time. 

Alan was born in Whitby his father being a local nurseryman, when Alan reached the age of approximately thirteen he became a “farm lad” in the Esk valley. Leaving the farm after two years Alan became an Ironstone miner working in Kilton mine and other mines in the area.  

Alan must have had the land in his blood as at this time he started growing flowers and vegetables on an allotment in Loftus selling his produce directly to the retail market. This then was the humble beginnings of A Hill & Sons.

During this period he married Miss Hanna Margaret Judson a local farmer’s daughter from Liverton. They had three sons and one daughter.

The second stage

Alan left the mines to rent Woodlands Nursery near Skelton in North Yorkshire. The whole family at this time lived on the Nursery and in 1927. He then went on to buy Woodlands Nursery and shortly afterwards Alan’s two eldest sons Alan (junior) and Cornelius became of age, and joined the fledgling company. The name of the company changed to A Hill & Sons.

During the war years production was turned entirely to producing food for the war effort. Alan (junior) and Con were also involved in the home guard and fire service for the duration of the war. Keith, Alan (seniors) youngest son joined the RAF seeing service in North Africa and Europe. In 1945 after the conflict Keith joined the company and shortly afterwards in 1946 the company bought 35 acres ant Stokesley calling the new company land Station Nurseries.

The next generation

At the time of Alan(seniors) retirement in 1954 the company was very different from the small beginnings at Loftus. Woodlands Nursery was beginning to develop with 35 acres of land at Station Nurseries and 10 acres rented at Marsk. Production had changed emphasis from just growing food during the war to now include flowers and ornamental plants for sale directly to the retail market. To achieve this company had two retail outlets in Saltburn and Redcar employing 19 staff.

After Alan’s retirement the brothers developed the business building one acres of glass at Woodlands Nursery and widening the range of plants grown for the retail outlets.

At this time the diversity of crops the company grew was amazing. From 40 acres of field crops including Potatoes, carrots, parsnips, turnips, cabbage, cauliflowers, lettuce, radish to name but a few to 3 acres of cut flowers ranging from sweet peas, sweet williams, dahlias, larkspur, troilus, cornflowers, tulips, daffodils and chrysanthemums. Its staggering to think all these crops and many more were all sold through the companies own shops.

The company was now being expanded managed of the second generation of the Hill family and it was growing fast.

The third generation 

In 1959 Alan’s son John joined the company followed in 1960 by Cornelius’s son David. As boys John and David had been brought up with business and horticulture all around them. Their training was mainly what is now termed as “in house”. They started at the bottom to learn the skills we needed to become a valuable part of the company.

David loved the work and the business and the nature of the business was such they were learned a huge range of horticultural and business skills.

In the early 1960’s the company increased the acreage of glass at Woodlands Nursery to two acres using this expansion to grow chrysanthemum blooms for the wholesale markets.

With the experience it gathered during these years production was increased in several crops identified as “wholesale” crops and although the original retail side of the business continued to flourish it was wholesale side that saw real growth.

The company at this time grew 30,000 chrysanthemum blooms under glass at Woodlands Nurseries for cutting in July, 60,000 blooms outside at Station Nurseries for cutting August to September followed by 140,000 blooms under cover in heated glass at Woodlands Nurseries for cutting from October through to January. Its interesting to think all these blooms were cut by hand with a pen knife!

At Station Nurseries among other crops we grew for the wholesale markets were spring onions, strawberries and one acre of Sweet Williams as cut flowers.

Also in the early 1960’s  the company started growing Hardy Nursery Stock at Station Nurseries at first for our own retail shops and later for the wholesale markets.

The crossroads

In 1976 the family business reached a cross road when the brothers retired the business was split up and sold, David Hill (the third generation) taking sole charge of A Hill & Sons based at Station Nurseries.

David at this time had gained the horticultural and business skills needed to run the company. He was married in 1969 to Marianne and in 1971 and 1973 respectively their Sons Julian and Simon were born.

Decisions had to be made and David decided to concentrate on two main crops Strawberries and Nursery Stock. With experience gained over many years working at all levels in the family company David decided to develop the Strawberries into a solely Pick Your Own enterprise while developing Hardy Nursery Stock as a wholesale business.

The Pick Your own Business was developed to include a good rage of fruits and flourished being the leading Pick Your Own Business in the area covering some 25 acres.

The Nursery Stock business was developing rapidly with covered areas built to offer protection for liners and other young plants. Container growing areas were developed with automatic watering and other mechanisation put into place to be able the rapidly increasing stock levels. Batches of field grown trees were planted every year delivering a succession of stock in many varieties and sizes to our customers.

The fourth generation

In 1989 after attending Hadlow College of Horticulture and working in the horticultural industry in Europe Julian joined the company. In 1999 after attending The Royal College of Cirencester where he completed a degree in Agriculture and Management Simon joined the company. This forth generation of the family had their own and new ideas to bring to the company.

In order to concentrate solely on wholesale Hardy Nursery Stock a decision was made to stop growing Strawberries and The Pick Your Own Business.  The company on the advice of our accountant was turned into a limited company A Hill & Sons Ltd.

Current day

There followed a rapid expansion of the business bringing new innovation and ideas into the company. Air Pots were trialled for growing trees. These were in such demand our first trial of 30 trees growing in Air Pots over the space of  4 years increased to over 9000 trees and is still expanding. A range of mature shrubs growing in Air Pots was introduced in 2007/8 and has proved very popular.

The automatic irrigation system was modernised in 2008 and in 2009/10 we expect to improve and develop our very inative and forward thinking stock control system.

The company with David now semi retired, is run by the fourth generation Julian and Simon and to day A Hill & Sons Ltd is a vibrant inotive company providing almost 40,000 products for the amenity setter of the Horticultural business.

Its very interesting when one realises the cornerstone of our success was thought through and developed in the first instant by Alan Hill (the founder of our company) and has been carried through the generations unchanged.

Simply it is:-

"To supply a wide range of high quality plants at competitive prices while giving customers an excellent and efficient service."