A family-run garden centre that still has its "original feel" is still thriving over 80 years on.
Located on Birkenhead Road in Meols, Wirral, Carr Farm Garden Centre is a much-loved family run independent business now in its third generation. Starting life as a farm, the Jones family have operated on the site since the 1940s and have grown the business from there into a nursery and then small garden centre, before it became the destination garden centre and online retail shop we've come to know today.
It was the late Joseph 'Joe' Jones who first took over the farm and during the WWII he was commended for his efforts in potato production. For a long time, the farm also kept a dairy herd and the farm shop would be bustling with customers buying fruit, vegetables and dairy produce.
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Today, Carr Farm has evolved from its humble beginnings to offer more to loyal customers, but the site still maintains its "original feel." Joe's granddaughter, Catherine Needham, from Moreton, told the ECHO: "There were six sons, Joe being one of them and they were Wirral based.
As part of the war effort organised by the government, it was said that all farmers would have their own farm because they needed to increased production. My grandad was sent to Carr Farm and he stayed.
"My grandad told us how he was running around the back fields in the early 40s trying to get the cows in whilst bombs were dropping. There was an RAF base behind us which was likely the target.
"He told us that the home guard were based at Carr Farm as well and he was always very proud of his achievements in exceeding the requirements for contribution of crops towards the war effort, especially as this was being achieved by older men who had not been conscripted and land girls from entirely different industries. As his kids came along they started expanding and growing not just fruit and vegetables but also plants.
"We would sell those plants and from there we evolved and it became a garden centre." Joe's children, Dave and Sue took over running the farm in later years and by 1982, Carr Farm Garden Centre was becoming well established.
Sadly Joe passed away in 2003, however the family continues to run the site, with the added help of Sue's daughter Catherine, 33 and her cousins Tom and Ben. Growing up on the site, Catherine said Carr Farm "feels like home."
Catherine said: "The old house that’s in the courtyard, that's 17th century. Sue and Dave were both raised in that building for a short period of time as well.
"In the 90s we found an unexploded World War Two bomb at the back of our sight - I was young and thought it was all very exciting. have memories of playing here and planting going on around me.
"For a while, we had a dairy herd and I still have memories of the cattle which is really bizarre because it feels like so long ago it’s changed a lot since then. We grew up here, after school we would come here, at weekend this is where we were and school holidays. We probably spent more time here than in our actual houses."
Today, generations of customers still come through the doors of Carr Lane Garden Centre and share fond memories of how it used to be and how far it has come. Now offering everything from plants and garden furniture to fresh produce, kitchenware and more, in 2014, a major revamp of the garden centre also began with the first phase completed in 2015.
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A state of the art 300 cover restaurant, called the Atrium Restaurant opened and refurbished retail areas transformed the garden centre to offer an even better day out. In 2016, the Forget Me Not Care Farm also opened to the public, transforming unused fields to now feature over 12 species of farm animals and small animals who customers and staff love to visit.
Catherine said: "It was my mum and her brother Dave that really took it from being a working farm to then a nursery and a garden centre, that was their vision. I think I'm most proud that they managed to build it from something small to something quite significant.
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"Although it's changed a lot it also hasn't changed at all. We're still very much at the heart of it all, as we were back then.
"We now have a nicer building and a bigger customer base, but it still has that original feel. Ultimately we are still the same as we still have that family feel and local connection with customers who have come and know our history.
"It’s nice that we’ve still got that tie. We have loads of ideas and loads of plans all to be seen."
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