Cartloads of pea vines at Smedley's canning factory, Wisbech - c.1930

Image: © The Humphrey family archive Taken: Unknown

When peas were first canned the vines were cut on the fields and loaded by hand onto carts and taken to the factory by horse. Just under the roofline of the building you can see an elevator taking the pea vines to a static pea viner which threshed the vines, separating the vines and pods from the peas, which then went onto the production lines where they were sorted, canned and then sterilized. Understandably the building was known as The Viner Shed in the 1930s and even though vining equipment was removed a few decades later this building was always known by the same name until it was demolished around the turn of the century to make way for redevelopment of the factory. By the 1950s pea viners were housed on the growers' farms and the peas were transported to the factory without the vines or pods. The static viners were housed in sheds like this one https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3126240. In turn static viners were replaced by mobile pea viners, see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3073599. The cannery first opened by Smedley's is still in operation today, see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4217181 and https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/6420663 (The year of this photo is estimated, corrections welcome)

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