|
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.
Nowadays the family are
still very much involved in the business, Carleton Wright although
retired still takes an interest and is in his 91st year. Peter
Wright has also retired and the business is run by Nicholas Wright
(Jessie's grandson) and Jeremy Ruggles (Jessie's great grandson).
The Company produces more cricket bat blades than ever along
with many other wooden products.
Let's hope that J. S.
Wright & Sons Limited can go on for another 100 years.

L to R: Nick Wright, Jeremy
Ruggles
|