In March, the Forgotten Fields project worked with a present day, small scale market garden - Glebelands City Growers in Sale - to find about the wealth of growers that existed in the area before supermarket culture took over.
Their area by the River Mersey has alluvial soil, some deposited in the ice age and is great for growing . Fields known as the the Little Ees were flooded to feed and improve the meadows for grass and the alluvial soil great for growing, but embankments were later constructed along the river to protect local properties from flooding. Villas were being built by the wealthy of Manchester who were increasingly moving out to the countryside and commuting to work along the canal or railway.
In order to research this food heritage, the children of Wellfield Junior School have been making site visits interviewing several older residents:
Liz Blackman from Cheshire Wildlife Trust helped the children to understand their natural heritage and the impact of mankind and cultivation on wildlife.
The children walked (for 25 minutes!) to Trafford Local Studies Library to meet and 'interview' Pat Coulburn, who has lived in the area since the 1930's. They found out where people bought locally grown vegetables and took on the role of shop-keepers in the library's excellent reconstruction of a local 1930's shop. Don Jackson from Grosvenor Road Allotments helped the children explore maps and archives about local allotments. The Ellen Daine Trust previously provided 64 allotment plots on the site of the school playing field from around 1917-1950's.
The children were fascinated to find out how Glebelands City Growers grow food organically in their own area today: they made their own piece of history by recording their interview and produced some wonderful drawings for the calendar.
A film was made of Freda Howarth, and Harold Barratt, with Jack Yarwood, his daughter,Ruth Heaton and grand-daughter Lucy, remembering and finding out about Wellfield Nursery. The land and Nursery was owned by the Yarwood Family and was sold to build Wellfield Junior School. They grew mainly flowers for market but also grew crops for their own use and sale locally.
Tom Everett from the Friends of Bridgewater Canal gave the children a walking tour along the canal to explain how 'night-soil' and sweepings were brought by canal from Salford and delivered to White's Bridge to be spread on the local fields and market gardens as fertiliser for crops.
A calendar will be made to illustrate this research and will be distributed to the local community.
All the recordings made in these sessions will be transcribed and will go to the local library as an archive for future generations. Any volunteers for this time consuming (but fascinating!) task would be gratefully received.
Forgotten Fields is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.