IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Opportune Road, WISBECH, PE13 3AW

A row of semi-detached houses

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)

At the junction of Cotterell Way and De Havilland Road This is part of a large area on the side of The River Nene which was razed to the ground years ago and has been overgrown ever since. At long last work on the construction of new housing has recently started. The site was previously occupied by the town's gasworks, a grain handling facility, light industry, a nightclub and Victorian housing

This is part of a large area on the side of The River Nene which was razed to the ground years ago and has been overgrown ever since. At long last work on the construction of new housing has recently started. The site was previously occupied by the town's gasworks, a grain handling facility, light industry, a nightclub and Victorian housing

At the junction of Cotterell Way and De Havilland Road This is part of a large area on the side of The River Nene which was razed to the ground years ago and has been overgrown ever since. At long last work on the construction of new housing has recently started. The site was previously occupied by the town's gasworks, a grain handling facility, light industry, a nightclub and Victorian housing

At the junction of Cotterell Way and Chase Street This is part of a large area on the side of The River Nene which was razed to the ground years ago and has been overgrown ever since. At long last work on the construction of new housing has recently started. The site was previously occupied by the town's gasworks, a grain handling facility, light industry, a nightclub and Victorian housing

It is now a luxury home. See http://www.francisfrith.com/wisbech/photos/leachs-mill-c1955_W115024/ for a photo from The Francis Frith Collection taken in 1955

On Cotterell Way. This is part of a large area on the side of The River Nene which was razed to the ground years ago and has been overgrown ever since. At long last work on the construction of new housing has recently started. The site was previously occupied by the town's gasworks, a grain handling facility, light industry, a nightclub and Victorian housing

On Cotterell Way This is part of a large area on the side of The River Nene which was razed to the ground years ago and has been overgrown ever since. At long last work on the construction of new housing has recently started. The site was previously occupied by the town's gasworks, a grain handling facility, light industry, a nightclub and Victorian housing