In the early 1980s, Haws’ then Managing Director, Dave Pennock, spotted an opportunity in the watering can market. Blow moulding was already being used to make plastic watering cans for both indoor and outdoor use, but to his eye the results were functional rather than attractive. He believed that the Haws form, scaled down for indoor use, could offer something much better. To help bring the idea to life, he enlisted designer Mike Orr.

The first model was the 150-1, a one-pint long-reach can. Mike developed the design, and a toolmaker was commissioned to produce the mould. The same company was due to manufacture the cans, but it went out of business shortly after completing the tool, leaving Dave with an untested mould and the challenge of finding someone willing to trial it.

Finding someone was not as straightforward as it might sound. Blow moulding is well suited to relatively simple hollow forms, such as bottles and jerry cans. A watering can, with its integrated handle and long, narrow spout, is a much more complicated shape to produce.

Fortunately, Portman Products in Birmingham agreed to trial the tool on a Saturday as a favour to Dave. At the time, the company was moulding ballcock floats for toilet cisterns, so the first 150-1 emerged in a particularly memorable colour…. ballcock orange!

The trial was a success, and the 150-1 went into production for the 1985 season. Other designs soon followed, and by the end of the decade the indoor plastic range had expanded considerably. These included the 150-2, a two-pint close-reach can; the 250, a two-pint long-reach model; and the Potpouree, the original one-pint pot waterer. Larger models followed too: the four-pint long-reach 450, the 6.6-litre close-reach 660, and finally the one-gallon long-reach 850 in 1994.