We had the pleasure of the company of Nick Wickenden, museum curator of Wilkin & Sons Museum.
Nick has worked at the museum and archives since 2022 and with the benefit of a PowerPoint presentation and free samples of some their products, he explained the history of Wilkin & Sons to the present day.
It began when the Wilkin family moved to Tiptree and started farming at Trewlands farm in the early 1700s.
By 1865, the farm moved from arable crops to fruit, which were transported to markets in London. Arthur Charles Wilkin founded the Britannia Fruit Preserving Company in 1885 after Prime Minister William Gladstone commended fruit preserving to the British population, This produced the first "Tiptree" branded preserves, with all production sold that year to a merchant who shipped it to Australia. 10 years later 400 seasonal pickers were annually harvesting 200 tons of fruit, of which half was turned into jam and preserves.
Reformed as Wilkin & Sons, the company leased farms as far away as Dagenham and Suffolk. By 1906, the company owned 800 acres of land on farms 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.
The company has held a Royal Warrant for preserves and marmalades continuously since 1911. (pictured is a 1oz (28gm) jar used typically in tea rooms, restaurants etc and two miniature jars, Wilkin & Sons were specifically asked to create in 1924 to go into a 5ft high Dolls House gifted to Queen Mary at a scale of 1:12, each 11mm high. Each jar contained the actual jam identified by its miniature label.
During World War I production was halted due to a lack of essential supplies. But by 1922 and now owning 1,000 acres of farmland across eight farms, the company was creating new record outputs of fruit and preserves.
During World War II, the company and factory came under the reins of the Ministry of Food, and kept producing its preserves alongside other essential food products.
In 2010, the company celebrated its 125th anniversary, with a visit from the late Queen Elizabeth II.
Today, Peter Wilkin, the great-grandson of the founder, remains an integral part of the business. Through a trust, employees own almost half of the business.
The company farms 1,000 acres in and around Tiptree and grows much of its own fruit, including strawberries, plums, cherries, raspberries, mulberries, quinces, medlars and Little Scarlet, a small fruiting variety of strawberry with a unique and intense flavour.
Turnover exceeded £34 million in 2012, and the business employs over 250 full-time staff with many more during the fruit-picking season.
Many new products have been introduced over the years, and the first range of Tiptree Fruit Gin Liqueurs was released in 2016, they have proved so popular that the alcohol range has been extended to vodkas and rums and special RAF Spitfire, Hurricane and Lancaster spirits.
Wilkin & Sons Ltd 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 the grounds of the jam factory.