A HISTORY group has uncovered how a Stonehouse trader set up a jam factory to prevent fruit being wasted.

The Severn Valley Fruit Company, in Orchard Place, founded by trader Charles Lister Smith in around 1900, was one of the first factories to sell bottled fruit.

Mr Smith’s obituary, published in the Stroud News in March 1945, reveals how he set up the factory to prevent fruit being wasted.

It reads: “It was during Mr Smith’s visit to the local farms in the early 1900s that he was appalled at the waste of fallen fruit that was allowed to lie under the trees and rot.

"The markets could not absorb it and he started experimenting with bottling.

“He must have been one of the first to commercialise bottled fruit.”

After the Second World War, the factory moved onto canned products for catering, including hospitals.

When the motorways opened in the early 1960s, the business saw a decline in trade due to increased competition and closed in 1964.

Darrell Webb, from the history group, remembers collecting fruit for the factory during the 1950s.

He said: “When we were about nine or ten, I and many of my friends used to go blackberry picking and then sell them to the local jam factory to make their jam.

"We used to get six pence in old money per pound.”

See more from Stonehouse History Group by visiting bit.ly/28PLzfO.