In 1894, in a pub called The Compasses at Littley Green near Chelmsford (it’s still there), a local builder called Jessie Wright was approached by a man called Montagu Odd wanting to know if there were any willow trees in the area for sale. Wright and sons was born that year and remains in the hands of the family, four generations later, selling Salix Alba, or white English willow, to bat-makers around the globe. From small acorns: the family firm now describes itself as “the world’s largest and oldest established company supplying English cricket bat willow.” Odd, 25 years old at the time, was the son of Amos Odd, who had started a bat manufacturing business in 1882 in Surrey, and he needed a

Source: The Times January 05, 2021 17:10 UTC