Procter & Ryland Seal

Procter & Ryland Seals, Image by StuE, Found by Allsopp.
Found in the Staffs area.

The picture is of two seals showing the best markings out of 12 submitted by Allsopp proving it to be quite a common seal.

Both sides have a raised circle border, inside one is a plough and the inscription, REGISTERED above and TRADE MARK below. The other has PROCTOR & RYLAND in three lines across the middle and inscribed around this .MANURE MANFRS. above and SALTNEY CHESTER below.

"A chemical works was operating in the area as early as 1843, and in 1856 another firm, Proctor and Ryland, moved to Saltney from Birmingham and opened a bone manure works on the riverside." Victorian Chester: Essays In Social History 1830-1900 edited by Roger Swift.

"The bone manure works of Proctor and Ryland was taken over c. 1894 by Edward Webb and Sons, seed merchants of Stourbridge," Source A History of the County of Chester: Volume 5 part 1: The City of Chester: General History and Topography, C.P. Lewis, A.T. Thacker (Editors)

An interesting account of Thomas Proctor, his company and the history and chemistry of phosphate manure in general can be found in Fertilisers, Farming and
Philanthropy – the Proctor Story. By Raymond A Holland.

See also UKDFD No. - 19808