Mote Park, the large popular park in Maidstone has an interesting yet little known connection with the Royal Dutch Shell Oil Company. It involves a previous owner of the park, Sir Marcus Samuel, whose family had originally emigrated to the UK from Iraq & ran an import/export business based on a shop in London's East End. A large part of the business involved exotic sea shells & Marcus & his brother, Samuel, made frequent trips to the Far East to acquire stock. It was during these journeys in the latter half of the 19th C. that Marcus noticed increasing numbers of oil tankers plying the major sea routes & realised that the oil export business could prove a lucrative venture. By the 1890's he had acquired a fleet of tankers & in 1897 incorporated the Shell Transport & Trading Company. (The name was inspired by his family's original business as 'shell merchants'.) In 1907 a merger with the Royal Dutch Oil Company led to the creation of Royal Dutch Shell with its famous pecten scallop trademark. Marcus Samuel acquired Mote Park in 1895. He was knighted in 1898 & became 1st Viscount Bearsted in 1921.
After his death in 1927 his son, Walter, inherited the park & sold it to Maidstone Borough Council in 1929 for £50,000.
Mote Park during these snowy weeks!
No comments:
Post a Comment