First ever employee revisits garden centre 60 years on

 With 60th anniversary celebrations well underway, the team at Otter Garden Centres were delighted to be contacted by the business’s first ever employee.

Nigel Blackmore visited the Ottery St Mary garden centre to meet up with founders Marilyn and Malcolm White, who employed him as a youngster.

Nigel, who will be 76 in August, grew up around Combelake and Fenny Bridges near Ottery, attending Ottery Primary, Ottery Boys and then Honiton Secondary School. Once he’d finished his education, he began working full-time at Otter.

He said: “I joined at the very start of the business when there was very little at the Gosford Road nursery except Malcolm and Marilyn’s second hand caravan.

“The site had previously been a chicken farm, so one of my first jobs was ripping out chicken wire using a tractor!”

He went on to undertake a wide variety of tasks at Otter including helping start off the market garden so seasonal vegetables and fruit such as lettuce, cabbages, leek and raspberries could be grown. Nigel helped prepare the ground and plant the seeds and young plants, and the resulting produce was sold to local markets. 

As the Gosford Road site developed, he helped to build the large wooden greenhouses so even more plants could be grown.

Nigel adds that even when staff numbers began to increase, working at Otter always felt like being part of a little family. “There was great camaraderie and everyone worked happily together to get things done.”

Eventually Nigel moved into a career in the prison service where he stayed until his retirement. “But of all the jobs I did, working at Otter was the only one when I was happy every day to go to work.”

Now living in Chawleigh, Nigel’s own garden is home to camellias, palms, an olive tree and eucalyptus. But with two dogs that like digging, he says he only grows his colourful plants in containers.

Before his visit to Ottery, Nigel mentioned that he’d always been impressed with Malcolm and Marilyn’s hard work and energy. After meeting them again he said: “They haven’t changed, they couldn’t stop in their twenties and it seems the same is true now!”