Court Hey Park
Nursery
Memories

The Greenhouse

Hi - A very interesting site, but sadly omits information of the Seddon brothers who ran this nursery till retirement achieving classic floral displays throughout the Huyton & later the Knowsley's borough who sadly transferred the nursery to Wilson road industrial estate now I believe to be closed I was an apprentice to Foreman Mr S Seddon & chargehand propagator Mr J Seddon who resided in the park in two very large houses they later fought to purchase. I joined Huyton UDC in 1971 as a student gardener & first worked under Foreman Mr G Seddon who was responsible for all of Huytons parks & open spaces.

Mr Father was Superintendent & Mr Gould was his assistant. I am flabbergasted that your web site has no records of this nurseries achievements of gold cup winners at Liverpool, Knowsley's & the Southport shows the nursery provided every service for the council that a nursery could under the main direction of Mr Stanley Seddon who was the most gifted horticulturist I have ever known his brother Jimmy Seddon was also a brilliant propagator.

They carried a dedicated staff of which in the period of ten years I qualified s city & guilds stage 11 & departed for pastures new ending up as a retired nursery superintendent of Colwyn bay / Conway CBC. I can recall the conservatory open to the public, the tree nursery by the two large houses the park that went right over to childwall & beyond, I have heard of property being built on such areas! The nursery was situated in a walled garden that was once an orchard, I moved to Blackburn, Northwich, & then North Wales, nothing can take away the memories of my apprenticeship of Court Hey nursery & park when it reached a very high standard from three brothers who achieved so much for the park, nursery, & the borough of Huyton & Knowsley.

They were all Liverpool parks trained & alas a dying breed of skilled hands of horticulturist of their era "Attention to detail" was their motto as privatisation has decimated such services all over nowadays if that's progress!

Mr J Delahunt former member of the IOH since my retirement. I know the three brothers are still alive & well in Huyton.

Many regards

John Delahunt

2006

John has sent us an email recently with sad news, He recently learned that George Seddon had passed away in 2004.

John's email,

Hi - John Delahunt here who I emailed you over Court Hey Nursery & the
Seddon brothers in which you kindly contacted me back & placed my first e
mail on your site. I heard sad news that one of the Seddon brothers George
Seddon had passed away in the year 2004, & I spoke to his wife via telephone
last night as she informed me of this sad news. I had lost touch with one of the
brothers in that period of emailing you. It was so sad to learn that
my very first supervisor (foreman of the parks had died).

The nursery operation was a very big set up & served the borough of Huyton & the new Knowsley MBC very well indeed. I did receive an email from John Woods, the son of the Foreman Harry Woods who had been in charge of the nursery in the 1950's, I had heard of harry Woods affectionately from Jim Seddon but never met him as I was only born in 1955. I sent him a reply to this email below-it looks like Harry also went on to better things before passing away. Please see his son's email below,

'Read your e-mail to Friends of Court Hey Park, of your times there,
with interest.
My father, Harry Woods, worked with Jim Seddon in the 1950's and we
lived at Court Hey; in one of the cottages subsequently occupied by one
of the Seddons.
We left in 1958 when Dad took up a post in Belfast Parks Dept.
On returning to Liverpool in 1960 Dad first lectured (in Horticulture)
at Wigan and then (until his retirement in 1979) at North East Liverpool
Technical College, Muirhead Avenue. Dad died in 1994.

I wonder if you ever met my father.

John Woods

Thank you for your email John.

There is mention of Jim Seddon in the Book - 'A History of Court Hey Park' written by George Peet.

February 2006.

This article was part of the front page of Knowsley's News It is dated
September 1979 Ee aye addio! We won the cup! (a typical Liverpool chant from
that time!) It unfortunately does not mention the honours of winning this
very first Trophy at the Southport flower show that the winning display came
from Court Hey Nursery Court Hey Park, but does attribute it to the overall
department the parks section of the Borough Engineers Department. As I
indicated in my previous e mails the Seddon brothers & staff of Court Hey
Nursery were responsible for this trophy & many more & made news in the
Daily Express when they eventually won the overall Top Trophy at the
Southport flower show in later years. I can remember that is was mooted that
Knowsley's MBC Court Hey Nursery nearly went on to exhibit at the Chelsea
flower show, but due to lack of finances at that time withdrew.

My son has printed this attachment out on gloss paper A4 if your society
would like a copy I could send you it. Please let me know. It is sad Court Hey Park is not mentioned in this article but I can assure you all the plants & display came from Court Hey Nursery.

I will look forward to my book sent by George Peet & will read it with interest.

Many regards
John

Thank you again John for your email and the fantastic picture.

 

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