……. when we purchased Fir Tree Cottage in 1979 that it was our forever home ! I took a complete change of occupation after retraining in Agricultural Engineering.
H. Roy Dorrell was a based at Chirkenhill providing local Farmers and Growers with equipment and servicing. I started there in 1978 and lived in a caravan for a year while the cottage in Coles Green was extended and rebuilt, having been unoccupied for a number of years. Dorrell’s was a general Farm Machinery dealer, specialising in Hop and Blackcurrant spraying equipment, along with general farm machinery and a range of bespoke machines to suit individual growers in the area. My main jobs on staring where welding/fabrication and tractor repairs, both in the workshop and on site. They also provided back up service for Smallford Planters who, based in St Albans, sold Blackcurrant Harvesters worldwide. After a couple of years I started to handle most of the Smallford work, which was seasonal breakdown repairs as Smallford themselves did out of season maintenance. Herefordshire and Worcestershire was, at that time, one of the main UK areas contracted to Beecham for Blackcurrants used to produce Ribena.
In 1983 I decided to ……………….
