The Early Years

The Roots of Haws, 1885–1925

The Company was founded as J. Haws in 1885 and based in Clapton, North East London.

John Haws had retired from being a civil servant in the Colonial service in Mauritius. During his time there, one of his hobbies had been growing vanilla plants but he had found the French style of watering cans with their continuous ‘front to back’ handles very cumbersome to use. On his return to England he was determined to make a better watering can.

His timing could not have been better. London, in particular, was expanding rapidly and the nearby fertile Lee Valley was becoming a centre for large glasshouses nurseries in which watering was a vital activity. This development also coincided with the boom in professional labour-intensive gardening on the landed estates throughout Great Britain and the world.

There was, therefore, a growing need for suitably designed cans, or watering pots as they used to be called, for watering plants on greenhouse shelves and benches and for perforated roses for watering of newly sown seeds, delicate seedlings and small plants.

John Haws was soon able to take out his first patent, which covered the shape of the canister or body of the watering pot, the make, shape and position of the tipping handle, and the introduction of a carrying handle. His overall claim was that:

‘this new invention forms a Watering Pot that is much easier to carry, and tip and at the same time being much cleaner, and more adapted for use than any other put before the public’

At first the new can was unsuccessful on the open market. Then some of the top gardeners began to use it in the gardens and greenhouses of the wealthy and in 1894 the National Chrysanthemum Society awarded John Haws their Gold Medal for his improved water cans. Their future was assured!

To this day the essential features of the Haws design remain unchanged. John Haws got it right from the start!

In the early 1900s his nephew Arthur joined the business and on Johns’death took over its management on behalf of John’s daughters.

He did not have an easy time, facing stiff competition from cheaper imitators (nothing new under the sun!) His response was to maintain high quality standards to justify his price premium, to innovate and to emphasis his brand. He spent a lot of time and effort patenting filters to prevent sediment clogging the fine spray roses and to control water flow, and also on the design of the two brass roses supplied with each can, one round, the other oval.

His determination and foresight clearly paid off, and in 1911 the Haws can was awarded the Royal Horticultural Society’s Banksian Medal – an award previously reserved for flowers. The following year the Company was invited to exhibit at the first Chelsea Flower Show.

By the mid 1920s manufacturing facilities at Clapton could not be extended so in 1925 production was moved to Bishop’s Stortford in Hertfordshire, where it would remain until the early 1950s.

Introduction
Part 1 – The Early Years, 1885–1925
Part 2 – The Bishops Stortford Years 1925–53
Part 3 – The Tala Years, 1953–76
Part 4 – The Elliott Years, 1976–82
Part 5 – The Eclipse Years, 1982–