IMAGES TAKEN NEAR TO
Lynn Road, WISBECH, PE13 3DG

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)

The 2 towers house equipment which "cooks" baked beans, soups and other canned food after it has been sealed in cans. The 2 sterilizers were originally part of the Campbell's Soup factory in King's Lynn, see https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/1545820, and were moved to Wisbech in 2007 and 2008 when the factory was owned by Premier Foods (The last project undertaken by the photographer before deciding to retire)

On Mount Pleasant Road.

Dates from 1881 https://historicengland.org.uk/listing/the-list/list-entry/1126663

A row of semi-detached houses

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/

This pub closed in 2019 and is currently being converted into a domestic dwelling. See https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4939668 for a photo of the pub in 2016

The Horse and Gig Inn once stood on this site on Lynn Road between "Smedleys" canning factory and The Clarkson Arms This inn's location is shown on a map of Wisbech which was surveyed and drawn in 1853 as part of The Public Health Act of 1848, see https://media.geograph.org.uk/view.php?id=2680

This public house is on Lynn Road, Wisbech. According to AA Oldham's book it was called The Windmill until its name was changed in 1877. The photographer has drunk in this pub. It is known by some people as The Canner's Arms due to its proximity to a large fruit and vegetable canning factory once owned by Smedley's and now owned by Princes. The current sign can be seen in this photo http://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/4939687