1920S-30S: Tomatoes Take Over Postwar: Keeping the Heritage Alive
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Tracing the Lea Valley food growing story, finding out how people in the Lea Valley are keeping the story alive today, and looking towards a new unfolding chapter Early history: transport Ware and cultivation Ri ve 19th Century: the oldest R r 6th Century: Saxons were the first 16th century: iv L River e e r a L Ash people to settle and work the land By now there were e allotments in London a N in the Lea Valley. Their main crops many malters in the a v ig 1834: Eleven acres of land at were oats, wheat, rye, leeks, valley, malting grain at io Hagger Lane, Walthamstow, given celery, carrots and beans. for London n Ne over to “spade husbandry”. Much w breweries. East Ri My allotment has lots of fruit ve of the site remains in use, making For years the Enfield r Stanstead and vegetables. We also find it probably the oldest allotments and Chingford Herts Abbots lots of frogs, we put them in in London. Walthamstow. These are believed malters opposed the pond. We are very proud – to be the joint second oldest a new “cut” in the 1845: The removal of glass tax. when we come home and working allotments in London. river made in 1581, Suddenly, glasshouses began ort unload all the fruit and Rye Meads St which allowed malt er popping up all over the Lea Valley, Higham Hill Common is today an vegetables on the table nature iv to be transported from reserve R especially Tottenham, Clapton and example of a thriving community we take photos and tell allotment site, where diverse the Midlands to the city. t Edmonton. But the growth of all our friends about it. or St communities come together to r London pushed them northwards, Bethan xxxxx, Walthamstow 1665: Barges of grain from ve Roydon Ri to the areas that continue to boast share in the joy of growing and Hertford and Ware saved London many nurseries today: Enfield, work on collective projects such as from starvation during the Great Roydon Glen Park Cheshunt, Waltham Abbey wildlife areas and supplying surplus AD 894: the Plague. Faba and Nazeing. vegetables to senior citizens. Danes sailed 17th century: the Lower Lea up the Lea. They Dobbs Epping 1852: Allotments 1917: Transportation of goods on became noted for its market established the Weir created at Markhouse the River Lea peaks, at 743,000 gardens, boosted by ready access Forest first market and Higham Hill tonnes of goods. A significant to water, and London’s markets gardens in the Common, both in proportion of these are malt, flour, and horse manure. Field area, growing much Broxbourne beans and vegetables were grown in the same crops as the manure. abundance and there was Allotments grew in popularity in the early part of Saxons. Nazeing experimentation with exotics Broxbourne Mead the 20th Century. These are in Tottenham, 1936 R 11th century: Walthamstow and such as pineapples and melons. i District v e Leyton Marshes drained to provide r My son bought my grapevine, it L e lammas lands for summer grain a Lower grew grapes the first year we N cultivation. These provided the a Nazeing v planted it and the only i medieval staples of beer, bread g a r trouble is trying t e i and porridge. v o i n R to keep it w 12th century: The River Lea’s under Ne Holyfield energy was harnessed to control! Lake River Lea Country transport grain, and to power I used to Park grain mills, at a site now known have 50 S as Three Mills, and at Waltham gallons of m a l Abbey. wine on l R i the go at a time. v Seventy World War Two: e r Acres Margaret, Leytonstone L e lake Dig in for Victory a C o r H n o m 1939: The outbreak of the Second World r i s l Areas marked in lilac l e S m War sparked the peak of Lea Valley food show where there t i r Bowyers l e l a are still glasshouses production. Water S m t in the Lea Valley r e The government made it a Waltham m illegal to grow “luxury” items, Cross Waltham including not just roses, but Abbey also grapes and cucumbers. M25 Motorway Tomatoes prevailed, and field veg such as potatoes, onions and cabbages made a return to 1920s-30s: the market gardens, on spare trades also land around the glass structures. grew up: Enfield tomatoes Lock flowerpots Tu The War also saw the “Dig For rkey take over Br were made ook Victory” campaign, encouraging people to grow My favourite is potatoes – when I grow them from clay myself I can decide when they’re ready – 1920s: Tomatoes, originally their own food. Open spaces such as Wanstead dug on the R Flats were converted to allotment gardens. have a look and if not put the soil back i grown as an ornamental, v e over. The best potatoes you can eat are r spot at R It is estimated that by 1942 50% of Britain’s i overtake cucumbers and grapes L v e Waltham Abbey, and in e straight out of the ground and into the pot – a vegetables were allotment-grown. r as the number one food crop in Sewardstone N L then they’re still sweet. e Tottenham. Maxen’s of Waltham a the Valley. At this time some 200 v a i Abbey specialised in greenhouse g Carol Keogh, Leyton a million tonnes of the red fruit t i equipment. o were being harvested each year. n I remember Dig For Victory: I helped my King “I grow beans – runner beans, father with his two allotments in the Many of the Waltham Forest George’s French beans, and tomatoes, Reservoir Railway Goods Yard. On one of them there residents who took part in basil, parsley, lettuce, chives, was a direct hit from a small bomb. It took OrganicLea’s local food survey Golf sage. I was quite successful Enfield Course the rest of the year to fill it in, but the listed tomatoes as the favourite with my tomatoes. William marrows that grew on it the next year food they’ve ever grown. Girling I grew them in a pot Reservoir would have all been prize winners. 1930: By now, the produce of the and they were going NG Brome, Walthamstow Lea Valley was worth over half of all summer” the total agricultural produce of Kay xxxxx, the entire country! Associated Walthamstow Chingford Charles Bright on Palmers his riverside plot Green in Tottenham South Chingford Banbury Upper Reservoir Edmonton Higham Postwar: keeping Haringey Hill the heritage alive Waltham lifetime a nearby company wrote to him Tottenham offering to buy the allotments in order to 1945: After the war, many Italians were Forest extend their factory. He wrote back invited to the Lea Valley to work in the Hale Walthamstow Olympic-sized offering to buy their factory in order to gardens: many had already been forced Reservoirs extend the allotments. But neither the old to do so as prisoners of war. They were Walthamstow demolition Major, nor any of the plot holders, could have the latest European “influx”: at the start The entrance to Manor Gardens Allotments, kept the Olympics at bay. The site has been of the century, Scandinavian and Dutch between a bus depot and a tatty warehouse, evicted and destroyed to make way for an people moved to the region to work in Walthamstow was unpromising, but led, across a bridge over Olympic footpath. An alternative site given to the glasshouses. Their descendants Marsh the Old River Lea, to one of London’s most the plot holders has poor soil and was illegally continue to populate the Valley. Nature beautiful allotment sites. Amongst its rickety built on common land. Upper Reserve 1950: 1,300 acres of the Lea Valley Clapton sheds and rusting wheelbarrows, were plots Stoke Leyton now under glass. Newington tended by growers whose origins were There’s everything on there. Leeks, 2002: Some 300 acres of Lea Valley under Hackney as diverse as the produce they grew. parsnip, cabbage, brussels, carrot, onion, glass. Most food produced is distributed Marsh On the riverbank down one side of shallots – you name it it’s on there. beyond London and the Valley. Growing Communities box scheme gets a local the allotments, grew fruit trees. In The first time I came to the allotment supply of produce from a 'patchwork' farm of small Hackney Spring their scent and heavy blossom was 40 or 42 years ago. I am normally I grow or my family and friends - they market gardens and growing sites in Hackney Homerton Newham made the place feel like a little bit of here 4 days a week. Monday, Wednesday, are impatient for curry cooked with countryside in London. A hundred or so years Friday and Sunday. You can’t get fresher my teendra, callaloo, potatoes and I was 7 years old I’ve been interested A120(M) ago these allotments were given to the food than that. coriander. The bright green colour in farming. I don’t believe in fertilizer gardeners of East London by Major Villiers, an Albert, former Manor Gardens l C of fresh garden grown veg makes – I do the natural thing. We don’t buy Victoria a h an a old fashioned philanthropist. During Villiers’ allotment holder Park C n me very happy. n n onions, garlic, runner beans etc from io e n l U s Mrs.