Rose (retail) Nursery  

Listing last updated on Wed Aug 2024

Loughborough Road,
Wanlip, Leicester
United Kingdom

1951 The Rose Annual
p142. Around the Nurseries.
Walter Bentley & Sons Ltd., Loughborough Road, Wanlip, Leicester.
Celebrating its diamond anniversary this year is the firm of Walter Bentley and Sons Ltd. This business was founded by the late Mr Walter Bentley, a character who, with the most unassuming nature which endeared him to all who had the pleasure of knowing him, was often described as one of Nature’s Gentlemen. He devoted the whole of his life to the nursery trade, commencing work with the late Mr Thomas Warner at the Abbey Nurseries, Leicester, and later improving his knowledge with Messrs Richard Smith of Worcester. He eventually started on his own account in a very small way and with perseverance coupled with his genuine love for Roses worked up a fine business. The 1914–18 war upset most of his calculations but after several years of strenuous endeavour he manage to get back on a firm footing and to establish a reputation throughout the British Isles and abroad as one of the leading wholesale firms of Rose growers. Since the death of their father, which occurred so suddenly in 1940 - for he was at work the previous day and died as he had always wished to do “in Harness “– the business has been ably carried on by his two sons, Ewart and Kenneth, who have been connected with it since boyhood days. The former deals with the sales side and the latter is in charge of the nursery....The firm eventually moved to the 160 acres now devoted entirely to roses.