F Kettle & Son

A brief history of Kettle & Son's of Dovercourt

Continuing with commercial enterprise’s around the Harwich & Dovercourt area, we uncover F.Kettle & Son.
Fred Kettle landlord of the British Flag (located in West Street, Harwich) opened his company in 1891, initially in his own pub cellar. The company initially concentrated on the mineral water manufacturing business, but later expanded to other beverages as well.
The business expanded rapidly with the increasing number of holiday makers and importance of the port areas, not forgetting the significant number or public houses and hotels in the local area. In October 1904 the business relocated to Stour Road opposite the Anchor Hotel and behind Cann’s Shipyard.
F.Kettle’s continued to prosper, winning a bronze medal for the quality of their products in 1920, with a copy of the award shown below (original owned by Lydia Whitnall).

Sadly, in July 1923 Fred Kettle passed away resulting in his son A. B. Kettle taking over, the business was the renamed as F. Kettle and Sons Ltd.
A couple of months later, on the 23rd October 1923 the building, machinery & workshop were all destroyed by a fire, along with a new motor van. However, with the help of another local mineral water competitor Mr Charles H Vail, Kettle’s continued to trade, with the business now relocating to a new site at the corner of Gwyn Road (later Gwynne) opposite the Cliffe Park, Dovercourt, which was formally occupied by “Neptune Works” which was a motor & engineering workshop.
Chas Vail a local entrepreneur, ran his mineral water production business from a site where the current pumping station in Fernlea Road now stands. The business appears to have only run between the two world wars, with local bottles & stoneware marked With “C.H.Vail”.

More recently in October 1960, the business was acquired by Mr Harry Smith, but retained the trading name and all ten employees retained their jobs.
Sadly, the business closed its doors in December 1986, with the cessation of the mineral water business, but limped on as a “cash n carry” business until 1988, when the building was finally demolished, to make way for residential housing.

Many Kettle’s bottles & stoneware still survive bearing the name of “F.Kettle” or “F.Kettle & Son” Some of which were uncovered by “Bottle Diggers” working the spoil heaps in the Hangings at Dovercourt, particularly in the 1970’s & early 1980’s. It was a great way to spend the day, as long as you didn’t suffer a “roof” collapse when digging!

Kettle’s bottles, jars & stoneware still turn up in the strangest places, like the derelict site of the former Queen’s Head Hotel, at Dovercourt known as “Starlings” (taxis), which was revamped into a new events space and car park, back in 2022.