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Six seed bags of different sizes. Each is woven and stitched, and is marked 'Suttons Seeds Reading England'. They came from the Trial Grounds of Suttons Seeds Ltd.

6 seed bags: fabric, good condition- as new

MERL miscellaneous note, Greta Bertram, 2 August 2012 – Suttons Seeds Ltd. was founded in 1806 by John Sutton (1777–1863) and traded as a corn merchant. It was known as the ‘House of Sutton’ and had premises on King Street, Reading. John’s two sons joined the business in 1832 and in 1836 it was renamed ‘Sutton & Son’. In 1837 the company moved to the Market Place, Reading, and expanded into seeds and acquired nursery grounds in Queens Road, Reading. In 1840 they established a testing laboratory and in 1873 new buildings replaced those in Market Place. These included various offices, separate store rooms for different types of seeds and bulbs, recreation rooms, residences and a fire station. In 1962 Suttons moved to new grounds and premises on the eastern outskirts of Reading, before moving to Torquay, Devon, in 1976 and then Paington, Devon, in 1998., MERL Handwritten Accession Form (Museum of English Rural Life) – ‘Recorder: JMB // Date: 19.6.97 // Description: Six woven and stitched bags of different sizes. // Inscription: Suttons Seeds // Reading England // Dimensions: (1) L. 34.0 cm x 24.5 cm // (2) L. 44.0 cm x 24.5 cm // (3) L. 54.0 cm x 33.0 cm // (4) + (5) L. 68.0 cm x 40.0 cm // (6) L. 75.0 cm x 51.0 cm // Associated information: These bags came from the Suttons Trial Ground in Reading.’