Princes canning factory on Lynn Road Wisbech

Image: © Richard Humphrey Taken: 21 Mar 2020

The Art Deco office block and the adjoining pair of town houses at 85 and 87 Lynn Road are all Grade II listed buildings. There is a 17 acre site with one of the largest canning factories in the UK behind this road frontage. The building had the words "THE NATIONAL CANNING COMPANY" set into the stonework of the fascia below the roof line which has subsequently been filled in but is still visible on close inspection. It was originally built by the Smedley family in 1923, who were canning pioneers in the UK, on a site acquired from Crosse & Blackwell. Over the years the site has belonged to a number of different companies as rationalization and consolidation progressed within the food industry. Names that have appeared on this office block are Smedleys Ltd Smedley HP Foods TKM Foods Hillsdown Ltd HL Foods Ltd Premier Foods Princes The current owners Princes are part of the Japanese company Mitsubishi The following link is to a talk given by Michael Smedley in Evesham, where one of 10 canneries once owned by Smedley's operated before they were purchased by Imperial Tobacco http://www.valeofeveshamhistory.org/talks/talks-2013-2014/smedleys-canning/

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