The Rotary Club learned of the long existence of The Tiptree Jam Company
The club were enlightened to learn about a local company with a worldwide reputation for excellence in Jams preserves, marmalades and associated products by Robert Parker who is Head of Technical for Wilkin & Sons, and has been in the food industry for 44 years.
He started his working life as a medical microbiologist then moved into jam in his home town of Bridgwater in Somerset. He has been with Wilkin & Sons for 10 years.
He told us that Wilkin & Sons Limited established in Tiptree, Essex, England in 1885, and is still in Tiptree.
He gave us a brief history of the company which was started by Arthur Charles Wilkin.
Apparently the Wilkin family came to Tiptree, Essex and started farming at Trewlands farm in the early 1700s. By 1865, the farm was beginning to move from arable crops to fruit, which were shipped to markets in London. There were around 850 people living in Tiptree by that time. From 1904 this was via the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway, with the company providing most of the freight traffic at Tiptree station until its closure in 1962.
Reformed as Wilkin & Sons, the company leased farms as far away as Dagenham and Suffolk. By 1906, the company owned 800 acres (320 ha) of land on farms in Tiptree, Tollesbury and Goldhanger producing 300 tons of fruit per year, and feeding a factory capable at peak production of making 10 tons of strawberry jam per day.
In 2010, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary, highlighted by a visit from HM Queen Elizabeth II. The company has held a Royal Warrant for preserves and marmalades continuously since 1911.
Their products can be found in many hotels around the world by the noteable small jam jars.
Peter Wilkin, the great-grandson of the founder, remains an integral part of the business. Through a Trust, employees own a proportion of the business.
Wilkin & Sons Limited operate a chain of tea rooms in Essex, a specialist bakery and patisserie producer (Tiptree Patisserie) and sells fresh fruit grown on the Tiptree estate. The Tiptree Visitor Centre features a tearoom, shop, and museum about the company's history, jam-making, and village life. The visitor centre and museum are located in in the grounds of the jam factory.