Wilkin & Sons Limited is a manufacturer of preserves, marmalades and associated products established in Tiptree, Essex, England in 1885, and known for its "Tiptree" brand of fruit preserves.
History
The Wilkin family came to Tiptree, Essex and started farming at Trewlands farm in the early 1700s. By 1865, the farm was beginning to move from arable crops to fruit, which were shipped to markets in London. There were around 850 people living in Tiptree by that time.[1] From 1904 this was via the Kelvedon and Tollesbury Light Railway, with the company providing most of the freight traffic at Tiptree station until the line's closure in 1962.[2]
After Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone commended fruit preserving to the British population, Arthur Charles Wilkin founded the Britannia Fruit Preserving Company in 1885.[3] This produced the first "Tiptree" branded preserves, with all production sold that year to a merchant who shipped it to Australia.[3]