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Worcestershire is well-known as a fruit-growing county, and
in particular for its pears. One product made from these is the drink, perry,
which made a great impression on one early 19th-Century visitor, Sir George
Duckett (Jr.), the proprietor of the River Stort Navigation in Hertfordshire.
The Stort was important for the carriage of grain from the farmlands of
Hertfordshire into London via the River Lee, of which the Stort is a tributary.
Sir George was keen to expand this trade into other agricultural produce, hence
his building of the Hertford Onion Canal.
On his 1829 visit to Worcester, he was so taken with the
qualities of the local perry that his companions were often heard to remark
"Duckett’s Cut". On his return home, he decided that there was money to be
made from bringing this exotic imported drink into Hertfordshire, especially if
he not only controlled its transport but also opened a chain of hostelries to
serve it. First he had to build a canal right across the country - a most
ambitious project.
Unfortunately the company he formed, the Lee and Perry
Inns (Worcestershire Source) Navigation never raised the money for its
canal and so, with a few minor changes to its name, went into another
food-related business instead.
Over a century later, there was an attempt to commemorate
Sir George’s ambitious plan by creating a combined County of Hertfordshire
and Worcestershire, which was unfortunately spoilt by a typographical error in
the enabling legislation.
Written for Severn Aside, the newsletter of the
1999 National Waterways Festival at Worcester.
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