Before I introduce Mr Whiteley I’ll explain the origin of the name ‘Butts Farm’. Prior to the 1800s the area was open land. In 1800, under the Enclosure Acts, it was spilt into separate parcels, which were then sold. One particular parcel was bought by the Revered Gabriel of Hanworth. In 1804, he leased his plot to John Butts, who then established a farm. John Butts was at that time the owner of the Hounslow Gunpowder Mills. The lease was for the term of 18 years from Lady Day 1804, with an annual rent of £91.12. (The lease is in the Devon Record Office, anyone who is passing could perhaps pop in to transcribe the lease).

It is after 1804 that we see Butts Farm on the maps of Hanworth. Over the years it had various owners but still kept its original name.

Mr Whiteley, thankfully, commissioned a book for his model farms at Hanworth – available to view in Feltham Local Studies and in the ‘Hanworth Now and Then’ facebook group. Here is part of the introduction:

‘A country life in summer is preferable to the town. Here, we are amidst the noble scenes of Nature, in the light and open ways of never-ending beauty, there, in the turmoil of business, confused in dusty streets and worried by ceaseless cares of business. Here our senses are feasted, and we see Nature in her greatest perfection, and have always with us, the variegated verdure of the fields and woods, and a succession of grateful odours; all these delights throw over the whole scene, an air of gaiety impossible to be experienced in a crowded city. Here, amidst domestic & picturesque scenery, embracing cornfields, coppice and clover meadows, has Mr Whiteley planted his orchards & fruit gardens, built factories and farm-steads and established a colony of workpeople, for whom he has provided model cottages with gardens, a lecture hall and a recreation ground.’

Mr Whiteley set up his farms in 1894 to supply his department store in Westbourne Grove. It was said at the time that the store could provide anything from a pin to an elephant. Whiteley received a Royal Warrant as General Furnisher to Her Majesty, Queen Victoria. In 1896, for the wedding of Princess Maud, Whitley’s furnished and decorated Buckingham Palace and garden.

The 1865 map shows Butts and Glebe Farm, before the purchase by Whiteley, surrounded by open land. It shows Hounslow Road and Hampton Road [West] but no A316 as yet.

The 1895 map shows the farms after the purchase by Whiteley, see how the area is covered by orchards, now named ‘Hanworth Farms’. On his farms they grew, brewed, potted and brewed to supply produce for his department store in Westbourne Grove.

To improve the soil for his farms he had the land steam ploughed and then harrowed. The entire area was drained with a network of pipes four feet deep. A six feet tall galvanised steel fence was erected around the farm – stretching five miles. The wall was erected to create a micro-climate inside the fence. Outside the fence was planted an evergreen hedge: two hawthorns to one privet – to keep out the cold in the winter and the heat in the summer. 2,190,000 trees, shrubs, plants and bushes were then planted.

‘A garden is always more productive if situated by itself and surrounded by a wall. According to the guide it should have its exposure to the south and be open to the east. If the sun does not reach the fruit orchards & gardens until about ten o’clock, by which time it has acquired considerable heat, the sudden change of temperature is extremely injurious to fruit blossoms. The trees on the south walls have an increased temperature equivalent to seven degrees latitude. The North wall temperature is lower than that of the open air, with this arrangement Mr Whiteley is able to retard the ripening of cherries and greengages and thus able to prolong the supply over a greater length of time.’

Butts Cottages

Glebe Cottages - one end - facing towards Hanworth

Glebe Cottages - the other end facing towards Twickenham

Butts and Glebe Cottages were built to house the important farm staff. Butts Cottages are off Hampton Road West and Glebe Cottages off Twickenham Road. On the end houses of Glebe Cottages you can still see the adverts for Hanworth Farms. One of our residents was born in Glebe Cottages.

This image is a bird’s eye view of Hanworth Farms. There were factories, greenhouses, stabling, kennels, dormitories, a chapel...

In the factories they manufactured jam, preserved pickles, prepared potted meats, boiled fruit, made scotch marmalade, compounded sauces, and brewed Mr Whitleley’s famous lemon squash; bred and imported: dogs, poultry, pigeons and rabbits; turtles were imported live from the West Indies and killed as required by one of the farm’s butchers. Included in the workforce were confectionery chefs - who had a very impressive knowledge of chemistry, one particular chef had over twenty years of experience in a Royal European household.

The dormitories housed up to 150 people; the dining room was capable of seating 200. Strict rules had to be adhered to, such as no swearing or drinking alcohol.

The Gooseberry Pickers - if that was their normal attire then they must have been extremely uncomfortable.

Not only gooseberries, but also morello cherries, greengages, peaches, nectarines, plums, pears, strawberries, apples, damsons, quince, white and red currants, raspberries, American blackberries, mushrooms and tomatoes.

Carts returning to the orchards to pick up produce. Just behind the carts can be glimpsed a hedge, the iron fence and houses.

Here is a fruit strigging machine. I wasn’t sure why one would want to strig fruit – but they are still on sale today.

Fruit bottling - one of the most important rules was that the factory workers’ hands must be scrupulously clean. Gooseberries were topped and tailed using scissors - bottling plums was a painful job – the fruit was plunged into boiling water – removed and then skinned by hand – the girls and women had constantly to dip their hands into basins of cold water. All jars were steam cleaned – after every boiling the paved floors were washed using the hot water. There were 12 pans\cauldrons, equalling thirty gallons each; they were heated by the two fifty h.p. Galloway Steam Boilers.

Jam bottling – twelve tons of fruit were processed every day.

Corking – after the fruit was bottled it was covered with filtered spring water – then to the corking machine – 60 bottles per minute were corked using a patented machine.

The final part of packing the jars happened in the Finishing Room, where we can see the labels were attached to jars.

Strawberry pickers on the 60 acre plot. A description of the workers picking fruit: ‘now and then picturesque groups of rustic labourers and husbandmen in the harvest field, bearing their sunny burdens whilst peace and plenty smiled everywhere.’.

Hanworth Farms had its own blacksmith/farrier and stables. In the picture of the forge is shown what appears to be a master blacksmith overseeing his younger workmate. In Stable no 1 there was room for at least ten horses.

A load of tinned meats on its way to be delivered to Westbourne grove. It was said that Mr Whiteley never paid for newspaper advertisements - many people would have seen his carts constantly toing and froing from London to Hanworth.

The apiary and beehives can be seen by the steel fence – as well as harvesting honey, there would have been the added bonus of millions of bees pollinating the crops.

Here we have a chef in the soup kitchen – although not quite up to the hygiene standards of today.

There were many greenhouses on the farms and this was one of the tomato houses.

The poultry farm does not look much different from today’s designs.

The warren was used for breeding wild rabbits. There were also caged rabbits – one wonders why they had two types.

Mr Whiteley had a reputation as a dog breeder. These two dogs were sold to an Indian Prince.

Another daily cart delivery – this is the afternoon’s milk for Westbourne Grove.

The interior of Mr Whiteley’s bungalow – over furnished by today’s standards – plenty of work to keep it clean and dust free!

His life ended abruptly – at the age of 76 he died from a shot to his head. He left one million pounds in his will - to create a village of homes for the aged poor: Whiteley Village Walton-on-Thames, Surrey.

In Linda Stratman’s book she says Mr Whiteley was not a kind individual, he was often cruel to his wife; at one point he pushed her down a flight of stairs. He was known to become friendly with his female staff. Typical for the age was that his employees, in Westbourne Grove, lived on the premises.

And goodbye from some of the employees at Hanworth Farms: vegetable grower, farm manager, farm steward, blacksmith, beekeeper, chef, head horse keeper, chief cowman, pig foreman, carpenter, butcher, waggoners, fruit pickers, bottlers and striggers.

Information on the Whiteley’s Hanworth Farms taken from Orchards & Gardens Ancient & Modern, Barnard, 1895.

STRATMANN, Linda; WHITELEY'S FOLLY/The Life and Death of a Salesman; (2004, Sutton Publishing Ltd.)