A WORCESTERSHIRE business is celebrating 70 years on the site that has made it one of the best-known garden centres in the country.

Webbs is celebrating 70 years based at Wychbold, just outside Droitwich, with an exhibition highlighting the family firm's history on the site.

Webbs were thrilled with the response earlier in the year when local people were invited to get in touch with their photographs and memories to help the firm capture what life had been like at Wychbold.

The roots of Webbs began in the middle of the 19th century when Edward Webb, a successful agricultural seeds merchant, began trading from Wordsley, West Midlands.

Due to the quality of the firm's products, Webbs soon earned the highest seal of approval by being appointed seedsmen to Queen Victoria and every monarch since.

To assess the quality of their seeds, trial grounds were established and in 1937 with the growth and popularity of the motorcar, William Webb, Edward's grandson, moved the seeds trials alongside the A38 in Wychbold.

Vivid memories of those times are recalled by Eddie Wormington, whose father Alf was among the first on site at Wychbold. He worked for Webbs until he died, aged 80, in 1983. Eddie, then aged about seven, remembers Major Harcourt Webb showing his father the site of the new trial grounds. He remembers his father thinking what daunting work lay ahead. He said: "It cannot be imagined today, the amount of manual work that went into the preparation of the land. Each bed was ploughed with a single furrow plough share on a two-wheel trusty tractor.

"Afterwards it was rotovated ready for hand preparation and planting. The results were a sight to behold. The plants would eventually cover two thirds of the site, giving both a magnificent display of flowers and unbelievable cropping of vegetables."

The war years saw Webbs continue to breed and trial seeds (complete with anti aircraft guns situated by the river behind the seed grounds) and on throughout the 1940s, 1950s and 1960s.

Richard Webb, the great grandson of the original Edward Webb, then purchased the land and began the development of Webbs into both a garden centre and nursery.

Last year Webbs opened its £5 million expansion, seeing the vast Wychbold site becoming Britain's largest garden centre complex.

Now with a workforce of almost 400 people, this year it was given the highest accolade, when it was crowned UK Garden Centre of the Year by the Garden Centres Asso-ciation (GCA), which represents the best garden retailers in the country.

Today, the business is led by Ed Webb, great great grandson of the firm's founder. He said: "There have been many developments in the 70 years we have been in Wychbold. But one thing has never changed - the name over the door - Webbs."

l The exhibition will be on view at Webbs from Monday, April 30, until mid July. The 70 years at Wychbold anniversary culminates in a weekend of celebrations on July 7 and 8.