Secrets of the Past
The River Tamar forms the boundary between Cornwall and Devon. Rising only 4 miles from Bude and the Atlantic Ocean, the it flows south, slowly at first, for nearly 50 miles to the English Channel. In its middle reaches, the River Tamar winds its way through steep wooded country. This is also an area strewn with the relics of two centuries of mining.
Alongside mining, the Tamar Valley was famed for its cherry and apple orchards. Today it is hard to comprehend that this landscape, mostly shrouded in scrub and woodland on the steep valley sides, supported an industry of eight to ten thousand people at the height of the season in the 1950s, more than the entire population today.
The market gardens were known as “gardens” and were nearly all family-run, generally of only three to four acres and on sheltered south-facing slopes. The tidal river helped reduce frost and the steep valleys sheltered the holdings from the south west wind. For almost a hundred years the valley was the "earliest" strawberry growing area in the country.
It was the arrival of the Great Western Railway, which reached Plymouth in 1849, bridging the Tamar to Saltash in 1859, coupled with the growing pool of unemployed mining labour that made this horticultural revolution possible. The key to the industry's success was the speed with which the railway delivered perishable fruit to distant markets - particularly Covent Garden in London - within twenty-four hours of being picked.
Until mechanisation in the 1950s the gardens were largely worked by hand. “We didn't get backache on the hills because you weren't bending over all the time like you would on flat ground.” Special tools were made to work the slopes such as the 'Tamar Valley dibber'.
In the 1900s as disease became rampant amongst the fruit plantations the growers started to cultivate daffodils on a vast scale. The indigenous Tamar Double White became the valley's most famous flower: “I never met anyone who didn't like Double Whites - they were head and shoulders above other narcissus. The boxes were always lined with blue paper, it really set them off”. Many of the old varieties still flower in hedges and in odd corners where cultivation has long been abandoned.
In 1966, the cuts imposed by Beeching's reorganisation of the national rail system had a severe impact and many of the local stations were left unmanned. This marked the beginning of the end of the industry. Increased freight charges quickly followed and soon freight services completely ceased. Once fruit could no longer be delivered to the markets within twenty-four hours it ceased to be sent. Many growers turned to selling by direct purchase ('Pick Your Own') as well as to the local markets.
Secrets of the Past
The River Tamar forms the boundary between Cornwall and Devon. Rising only 4 miles from Bude and the Atlantic Ocean, the it flows south, slowly at first, for nearly 50 miles to the English Channel. In its middle reaches, the River Tamar winds its way through steep wooded country. This is also an area strewn with the relics of two centuries of mining.
Alongside mining, the Tamar Valley was famed for its cherry and apple orchards. Today it is hard to comprehend that this landscape, mostly shrouded in scrub and woodland on the steep valley sides, supported an industry of eight to ten thousand people at the height of the season in the 1950s, more than the entire population today.
The market gardens were known as “gardens” and were nearly all family-run, generally of only three to four acres and on sheltered south-facing slopes. The tidal river helped reduce frost and the steep valleys sheltered the holdings from the south west wind. For almost a hundred years the valley was the "earliest" strawberry growing area in the country.
It was the arrival of the Great Western Railway, which reached Plymouth in 1849, bridging the Tamar to Saltash in 1859, coupled with the growing pool of unemployed mining labour that made this horticultural revolution possible. The key to the industry's success was the speed with which the railway delivered perishable fruit to distant markets - particularly Covent Garden in London - within twenty-four hours of being picked.
Until mechanisation in the 1950s the gardens were largely worked by hand. “We didn't get backache on the hills because you weren't bending over all the time like you would on flat ground.” Special tools were made to work the slopes such as the 'Tamar Valley dibber'.
In the 1900s as disease became rampant amongst the fruit plantations the growers started to cultivate daffodils on a vast scale. The indigenous Tamar Double White became the valley's most famous flower: “I never met anyone who didn't like Double Whites - they were head and shoulders above other narcissus. The boxes were always lined with blue paper, it really set them off”. Many of the old varieties still flower in hedges and in odd corners where cultivation has long been abandoned.
In 1966, the cuts imposed by Beeching's reorganisation of the national rail system had a severe impact and many of the local stations were left unmanned. This marked the beginning of the end of the industry. Increased freight charges quickly followed and soon freight services completely ceased. Once fruit could no longer be delivered to the markets within twenty-four hours it ceased to be sent. Many growers turned to selling by direct purchase ('Pick Your Own') as well as to the local markets.