Photograph of Hilliers at 95 High Street, Winchester
Taken about 1895
In this photograph Mr Edwin Hillier's Nursery, Seed and Floral Depot boasts a fine floral display as well as decorative architectural detail. Edwin and Betsy Hillier first purchased a small florist's shop at 14 Jewry Street in 1864, growing flowers and plants for sale at two nurseries off North Walls and St Peter Street. A second shop, on the High Street, was acquired in 1883 and the family steadily purchased more land for horticulture, building up an important nursery business in Winchester and beyond.
It was Hilliers who supplied plants to the Imperial War Graves Commission in France after the First World War, and the Hillier Arboretum established at Ampfield is widely renowned today.
The photographer is unknown; the photograph is found in an album entitled 'Winchester Views of Modern Buildings'.
