A Potted History

Pennells is one of the oldest garden companies in the country and is probably the oldest still in the same family ownership. The business was founded by a Richard Pennell in 1780. Today it is run by another Richard Pennell, a seventh generation member of the family.

The company's first nurseries were situated in what was then, the outskirts of Lincoln next to a small stream called Gowt's Beck, the site of the current Pennell Street. The first Richard Pennell (1735-1812) was born in Stow, Lincolnshire. The firm still possesses his copy of the beautifully illustrated “Eden, or a Compleat Body of Gardening”. This was published in instalments from 1757. On the flyleaf there is a faint inscription "Richard Pennell's book from his master, Richard Sutton" to whom he was apprenticed.  Richard Pennell was to be joined in the business by both his son Charles (1771-?) who was born in Stow, Lincolnshire and his grandson Richard  (1799-1876) who was born in Collingham, Nottinghamshire.

The company's earliest record of its catalogues is from the 1840's. It shows that the nursery was by then growing a wide range of plants, particularly fruit trees and rose trees. Interestingly, a rose bush cost the same as a fruit tree - 2s 6p. The nursery developed during the second half of the nineteenth century, but it was only in the 1880's that clematis first started to appear in quantity in the company's catalogues. In 1846 the company listed seven clematis species including C. calyscina, C. flammula and C. sieboldii which retailed between 6p and 1s 6p.
 

In about 1858, the great grandson of the first Richard Pennell, Charles Pennell (1826-1891) came into the business on the condition his father Richard (1799-1876) retired. Although Charles had worked with his father for a time after leaving school they were in constant disagreement, as a result Charles worked for a number of years on nurseries in Germany and Holland, where he acquired some very progressive ideas which he used to transform the business upon his return. Charles developed a very large farm seed business, introducing new herbage seeds, roots and clovers for the farmers of Lincolnshire. He was also one of the first to try and popularise the tomato in this country.

 Charles was succeeded by his two sons, Charles Waldegrave Pennell (1861-1939) and Walter Richard Pennell (1865-1955). Charles W. Pennell was not only Company Chairman, but in 1900 he was also the youngest ever Mayor of Lincoln. He also became Chairman of William Fosters, the famous Lincoln Engineers who designed and built the first tank in the First World War. Charles remained as Pennell’s Chairman until his death in 1939, after which his younger brother Walter Richard Pennell took over from him.  Garden shops were opened before and after the First World War in Lincoln, Brigg, Doncaster, Gainsborough, Grimsby and Scunthorpe.

The company introduced many new varieties of plants during this period, including Hedera colchica Dentata Variegata and the well known apple variety Ellison’s Orange. Displays were mounted at shows throughout the country as well as the Chelsea Flower Show, during which orders were taken. By 1939, the company listed forty-eight large flowered species and twenty-nine species.

Walter Richard’s son Walter E. Pennell (1910-1977) returned to the business in January 1946 after serving in the Royal Artillery during the Second World War. He very nearly didn’t come into the company as he had developed a great interest in chemistry, but was eventually persuaded to stay with the family business.

However, his interest in science and technology was to lead to his interest in plant breeding. Walter started collecting seed from naturally pollinated plants during the 1950's. The Vyvyan Pennell clematis, perhaps the most famous of all the “Pennell” introductions, was raised in this period, but as a calculated cross between Daniel Deronda and Beauty of Worcester.

Walter Pennell was also a pioneer in the development of the modern Garden Centre. Pennells' first Garden Centre opened in 1966. The centre consisted of a small shop with beds of plants grown in old crisp tins from the local Smith’s Crisp Factory! Between 1969 and 1971, he went on to develop three purpose built centres at Lincoln, Doncaster and Grimsby. Walter Pennell died in 1977 and was succeeded, as chairman, by his wife E. Vyvyan Pennell (1913-1995) with their son Richard Nicholas Pennell becoming Managing Director.  Richard took over as Chairman after the death of his mother in 1995.

When the current Richard Pennell came into the business, he was to change the direction of the nursery to concentrate on container production supplying garden centres throughout the UK, basing the centre of production around clematis and climbing plants. During the 1990's, the company’s garden centres at Lincoln and Grimsby/Cleethorpes were expanded and developed. The nurseries moved again in 1989 to a site behind the company's Garden Centre at South Hykeham. An additional nursery was bought at Waddington.

Pennells' close association with clematis continued during the 1990's. The wholesale business was developed to supply garden centres throughout the UK with clematis. At its peak, the nursery was growing over a quarter of a million clematis plus many climbers, shrubs and perennials.

In 2002 the company decided to concentrate its plant production on supplying its own centres at South Hykeham and in Cleethorpes, concentrating on growing bedding plants, shrubs and perennials. 

Recent years have seen the development of the Cleethorpes Garden Centre with the opening of a new restaurant. In 2007 the eighth generation of the Pennell family,   William E. Pennell came into the business and in 2008 the Lincoln Garden Centre was redeveloped with new retail areas and a restaurant.