In business since 1938

To acknowledge the English Victorians as the world's greatest pioneers and inventors, is something of an injustice to Vincent Hartley. In 1938 he patented his original aluminium greenhouse design, which excelled over its Victorian wood and wrought iron forerunner in every way.

He started from the seemingly simple premise that the structure should be clean, uncluttered and practical, principals which are clearly evident in every Hartley greenhouse built today. He was the first to employ extremely strong but light aluminium purlins and joists to create spacious, elegant interiors, free of internal bracing, and presenting optimum natural light and glass area.

The glazing is unique to greenhouse construction, with each pane separately enclosed in its own frame to avoid pane overlaps, permanently edge-sealed with a durable strip, and firmly secured with capping using stainless steel screws. Fitted with safety glass, a Hartley greenhouse is deceptively stormproof and maintenance free, for life.

Vincent Hartley's inventive spirit was irrepressible. Amongst his other "babies" are the headlight cowl used so effectively in the blackouts of the Blitz, the first "everlasting" aluminium plant tags, and probably the first gas safety device - the ingenious "Safeboil" for preventing the dangerous boiling over of milk.

Much of his endeavour survives. The machines at the Hartley factory, given over to manufacturing shell cases in WW2, remain in use today fabricating precision parts in aluminium for Hartley greenhouses. The Gold Medal awards for Hartley Botanic at the 1952 Southport Flower Show are just part of an extensive collection. In our increasingly disposable age, the lasting quality he expounded is very much alive for the foreseeable future, in the Hartley Botanic range of greenhouses.