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Around Town Meets...
Tom Horsfield
Rose Grower & Nurseryman
By Brian Elliott
 Tom Horsfield made me most welcome when I called at Pot House Hamlet on a lovely spring day. We were served coffee in daughter Kate’s Potting Shed Cafe, part of the historic corn mill, lovingly restored in a project that took almost four years. Although it was a Monday morning several customers were already enjoying the relaxed atmosphere. Tom knew a good number of them and there was a cheerful exchange of greetings - even the ducks seem relaxed and enjoying themselves on the beck.
Like his father, Tom has a great passion for building, very much a hands-on interest. Later, walking around the site, I was amazed how much had been achieved with just one main helper, Tommy Beet. It reminded me of the kind of mixed skills and feeling for natural stone and wood that monks used in the same locality over 400 years earlier.
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The latest building phase relates to the old furnace, a wonderful tribute to 17th Century Silkstone glassmakers. An impression of the conical furnace structure has been thoughtfully recreated on the gable. Inside, equal care has been expended in complementing its usage as ‘Pookie’, a women’s fashion outlet, run by daughter, Rose.
Tom took me into the nursery where another daughter, Emma, has responsibility and I also met son, Tom, who studies Estate Management at university. The plants are of outstanding quality. We walked towards the old barn, a restoration project already being thought about.
A champion rose grower and rose breeder, Tom’s interest began at the tender age of twelve when he was given a thousand roses - and his own cheque book - by his father, Henry. On a farm of only 36 acres, roses seemed to be the right choice. At the height of the business some 55,000 roses were grown.
Tom told me that a good grower needed a lot of patience and dedication - and, most importantly, a love of roses. He began the long processes of breeding and getting accreditation for his own varieties and was a regular exhibiter at Yorkshire shows, winning a variety of awards. Tom’s gold medal roses were listed in catalogues and people were drawn to his nursery. He recalled standing alongside one of the legendary figures of roses: the flamboyant Harry Wheatcroft. The development of ‘instant gardening’ and ‘all season’ planting via containers - and the decline in fashion of growing beds of roses - meant diversification into a far wider range of plants in the garden centre age. But quality roses are still grown, about 5,000 a year along with a few hundred standards.
Nowadays, it is the name of the modern hybrids which are important to customers, bought for special occasions such as anniversaries and birthdays. However, Tom told me that old breeds such as Fragrant Cloud, Peace and Just Joey are among his favourites: ‘Hold the rose in your hand, look into it, at its form and colour and the beauty is quite remarkable.’
Tom Horsfield and his family have done much to attract people to this lovely part of South Yorkshire and it is good to know that the future of Pot House Hamlet has been safeguarded in a Trust.
Published Spring 2007. All information correct at time of print.
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