Joint retirement at Ashwood Nurseries
Ashwood Nurseries has waved goodbye to two long serving members of staff, as Barbara Cartwright and Robert ‘Bob’ Morriss retired at the end of February, with a combined 99 years of service between them.
Barbara started at the nursery in 1969, straight after finishing school. She started working on a wide range of jobs across the nursery, but soon specialised in alpines and heathers, which quickly became best sellers. In 1972, she started a year’s course at Pershore College of Horticulture, continuing to work at Ashwood during weekends. Sales and customer advice have always been a big part of her job, but in the 1990s, she took on a different role, creating pot displays both on the nursery and in John’s Garden. In 2013, Barbara became editor of Ashwood’s new website and online shop. A year later Barbara took on two new roles of events organiser and co-ordinator for the Ashwood Charity of the Year. In 2019, she was awarded the RHS Long Service Award for 50 years of service to horticulture. Barbara decided to take a step back from all other roles to concentrate on the company website from 2020. In 2024, the decision was made to create a new mobile-friendly website with many new features. Barbara described this as her ‘magnum opus’ before retiring, working on its creation until its launch in January 2026.
Bob started work at Ashwood in 1984 after working at a Road Signs Franco at Fordhouses for six years. His keen interest in fish and aquatics led to him being recruited to help run the aquatics section, especially helping out during busy summer trading. He continued to work and develop the aquatics until 1990. By then, the hype around aquatics had begun to dwindle and Ashwood’s business was slowly moving towards breeding specialist plant crops. As a result, Bob moved into the garden shop to help with sales.
Bob eventually took on an additional role, assisting company secretary Ruth Burrows with the accounts. When Ruth retired, Bob moved into the office full-time, sharing responsibility for the accounts with his close colleague Hazel Pepper. On her retirement, Bob’s role involved processing of the daily accounts, supplier payments and VAT returns.
During both of their very long careers at Ashwood Nurseries, Bob and Barbara have invested a lot of their spare time into providing for the local horticultural communities.
For 22 years, Barbara was a member of the The Ashwood Gardening Club held in the Ashwood Tea Room. The club was run by Howard Drury (gardening journalist and lecturer) alongside manager Tony Cartwright (Barbara’s husband). With its mix of gardening lectures and coach trips, it was incredibly popular but finally concluded its meetings in 2017. Since then, the club has re-formed at Swindon Community Centre with Howard at its helm and Tony and Barbara continuing to be valued members to the present day.
Barbara’s writing skills have always been put to good use at Ashwood, compiling catalogues, cultural guides and creating signage. She’s done a stint as Gardening Editor for the Black Country Bugle and has written articles in the gardening press.
Bob has spent 23 years as an volunteer at Arley Station on the Severn Valley Railway, working with other volunteers to help restore the gardens to their former glory. The gardens feature a wonderful display of plants and there is always seasonal colour, even in the winter. Some popular features provided by Bob include the big containers of Hydrangea paniculata on the station platform, and the statement hanging baskets of trailing red geraniums during the summer. Many of the plants and flowers at Arley Station have been grown at Ashwood Nurseries, and we have Bob to thank for the wonderful display and use of our stock.
Both Barbara and Bob are very well known to our frequent customers and have always been at the heart of Ashwood Nurseries. When they first joined, Ashwood was a small but fast-growing business. They were both heavily involved in customer-facing roles and played a key part in shaping the business into what it is today.
In more recent years, Barbara and Bob have worked largely behind the scenes – though their contributions have been no less important. Their dedication and hard work have been vital to the smooth running of the business, and they will be greatly missed by us all.
John and all the staff at Ashwood Nurseries would like to thank them sincerely for their years of commitment and to wish them both a long, happy, and well-deserved retirement.