Plaque marks UK tea industry date

STRATFORD-UPON-AVON businessman Denys Shortt was at the unveiling a bronze plaque in London that commemorates 335 years of the tea industry in the city.

Mr Shortt, who runs the DCS Group, which employs 300 people in Stratford, is a member of The London Tea History Association’s board after spending his early years on tea estates in Assam and in Uganda and Kenya.

He lived with his parents in Assam for 22 years, for the first ten years on the Langharjan Tea Estate, before moving to tea estates in Fort Portal in Uganda, and then Thika in Kenya. As well as sitting on the association's board Mr Shortt also sponsors the tea planters website www.koi-hai.com

The plaque is located at St Katharine Docks in London where approximately 32,000 tons of tea from China, India and Ceylon passed through in a year.

It is the first of four plaques the association intends to put up around key sites in the capital.