The Victory Tea Company
The Victory Tea Company was formed in Kidderminster in 1931 by Ernest Hill, a local man who had earlier been the Leicester representative for the Ceylon Tea Growers Association Ltd. of Nottingham. The business first opened in Sutton Road before moving to a purpose built warehouse and office in Holman Street where tea was blended, packed and stored. Ernie, as he was generally known, also delivered tea, coffee and confectionaries to private customers and businesses throughout Worcestershire and neighbouring counties.
When the company closed in 1965 a large collection of the documents was left in a store room and survived the occupation by subsequent businesses until donated to Bewdley Museum in 2014 and subsequently transferred to the Kidderminster & District Archaeological & Historical Society in February 2015. Some of the documents were in box files in approximate year order but a large number were received thoroughly jumbled in a large plastic bag. All the documents have now been organised into year order and further sorted in various categories: orders for tea, coffee and confectionaries, receipts, invoices, motor expenses, deliveries etc.
All prices for tea supplies and other goods found in the documents are, of course, in pre-decimalisation currency. For the record 1 shilling (or 1/- or 1/0d) is equivalent to the present 5p. 1p is worth 2.4d of the old money. So 1/5d has a present value of a small fraction over 7p.
A number of PDF documents are available on the history of the Victoria Tea Company: