“We harvest today so that tomorrow you can buy at your greengrocers fresh and lovely watercress”
Ask Leo is very grateful to AC and DW who sent detailed accounts and brochures about Greatford watercress and were able to answer all the questions we had been asked.
The Beginnings
In 1930 Major Fitzwilliam, who lived at Greatford Hall, decided to set up a watercress farm using the water from artesian springs, which draw water from over a hundred feet below ground. These springs gush up to the surface like a fountain. In the cold winter months the water is warmer than the surface air and so the cress is protected from the frost. This was a great advantage as it meant that cress was available when other salad crops were not.
The Watercress Beds
15 acres were cultivated here containing 30 beds each 10 yards wide and about 100 yards long. This was extended to 30 acres in the late 40s and early 50s when four more artesian wells were drilled. There were paths between the beds and over 10 miles of railway track connected the beds with the packing sheds. The main entrance was off the Braceborough Road where the Glen passes under the red brick bridge. The beds were situated behind the hall gardens.
DW sent directions to find the site, “Some of the remains can still be seen from a public footpath which runs through a narrow wood along the back of Greatford Hall. To find Greatford from Stamford travel to Uffington village, take the Greatford sign on the left and travel a further 3 miles. Pass the Hall and turn left immediately past the Hare and Hounds pub. A few yards further on you will pass Old Hall Cottage where the Fitzwilliams lived when they vacated the Hall. On the corner is the footpath sign. Follow this, which will take you through a narrow wood to the former watercress beds”.
Working at Greatford
During the War there were about 15 men and 30 women working at Greatford, including Land girls based at Braceborough House. AC told us “My mother joined the firm in 1936 as a packer and my father joined in 1939 as an outside worker. My wife Eileen also worked there from 1956 -1966. From September to April the men would pull the cress from the beds, thinning out September to December. It was totally cleared between January and April. Three beds were left for stock beds for planting out between May and August.
During the harvesting season the cress was pulled and placed into wooden crates and loaded on to flat bed railway trucks and taken to the packing shed where the women sorted out the best cress and made it into a small bunch between first finger and thumb, then an elastic band and a Greatford Gardens label would be attached. On the opposite side of the bench was a trough four inches deep and six inches wide fed with fresh water from the artesian well where the washer person would tidy each bunch placing 36 bunches into a chip basket weighing about 9 lbs.
Transporting the Watercress
AC was involved in the workings at the age of 12 when during school holidays he would spend his time helping to load the van. 300 to 500 chip baskets were taken to Essendine station at midday for the London markets at 4 o’clock and the same number were taken to the LMS station for all Midland markets.”
The end of a successful enterprise
The company went from strength to strength as people realised the benefits, as a source of calcium and iron and an excellent addition to a salad, or a soup. The business expanded with a farm at Wilsthorpe near Bourne and Major Fitzwilliam’s son and daughter also had cress beds at Fordingbridge, Hampshire, Healing near Grimsby and Tetney Barrow on Humber. In the early 1960s Anglian Water purchased the water rights and sealed the artesian wells with concrete. As AC said “No water no cress”.