History - 1963 to Present Day

History of the Company after the death of Jessie Wright in 1963

After Jessie died it was Carleton's job to do the buying of trees and the administration, Stanley ran the yard and did the sawing and final grading and Albert did all the splitting and initial grading.  Although they could all do most of the jobs to a certain extent.  At one time the firm employed up to 25 men, this was before a lot of the mechanisation took over.  Carleton, Albert and Stanley each had a son, and so a third generation was still in the business.  The sons were David, Nicholas and Peter, they would all do anything and large gangs of men would go felling all over the country, there were no motorways so journeys would take much longer and it meant a lot of time away from home staying on site.  (This photo shows Nick (at the back), Carleton (left) and Peter cutting a tree)

All the trees were cut down and into lengths using a cross cut saw sometimes with four men on the saw.  It was nearly as quick as a chainsaw is now.  All the rolls would be carried out of fields and plantations on men's shoulders and the  lorries were loaded by hand.  A crane was used to load the rolls that were too big to lift, this was fitted on the front of  a lorry.  It is much different now with forklifts, chainsaws and all the other modern equipment.

In 1971 David decided to emigrate to Australia , this was at a time when there were a lot of incentives to go there and it was a very cheap thing to do.  So the family had lost one of the third generation. Again the company needed a larger site so the land was sold for building and it moved to the present site at Coles Farm, Boreham Road,  Great Leighs.

Left: Felling a Tree. Right: Carrying rolls to the lorry

By this time Peter had a son in the business but a tragedy struck the family in 1980 when Peter and Audrey's son Robert ( known as Bobby) was killed on his motorbike whilst on his way to work.  This was a great blow to the company as Bobby was very interested in the business and a good friend to all.

Unfortunately Carleton Wright sadly passed away on 3rd March 2009 aged 96, he had a very good life and lived for the business and will be sadly missed.

Peter Wright passed away on 26th January 2010 at the age of 84, he also lived for the willow business and could tell many a fine story about the "good old days", we shall miss him.

Nowadays the family are still very much involved in the business.  The business is run by Nicholas Wright (Jessie's Grandson) ,Jeremy Ruggles (Jessie's Great Grandson) and Oliver Wright ( Nick's son and Jessie's Great Grand Son).   The Company produces more cricket bat blades than ever. 

Let's hope that J. S. Wright & Sons Limited can go on for another 100 years.

L to R: Jeremy Ruggles, Nick Wright and Oliver Wright