| Carshalton Lavender Fields | |
At the beginning of the 19th century thousands of acres of lavender fields could be found in the Carshalton area and the local produce was sent up to London by cart every day. Harvesting took place towards the end of July beginning of August when the lavender flowers produced the most oil. Men, women and children would come together in the fields spending upto 14 hours a day using small steel stickles to gather the lavender heads. Unfortunately, shortly after the turn of the 20th century, sub-urban development made deep inroads into the Carshalton lavender fields. When the fields were finally taken over for food production, during the First World War, Carshalton lavender began to die away completely. The final collections were in 1933. It was not until the late 1990s when the BioRegional group became interested that things picked up again. A local group of volunteers formed the Carshalton lavender project and quickly began to turn an unkempt allotment site back to its 200 year old former glory. (Based on a webpage from www.icsurreyonline.co.uk) |
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| Staff and pupils from Robin Hood Junior School volunteering at the Stanley Park lavender field. | |
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The public harvest days are on the 28th and 29th of July 2007. Members of the public can come and cut their own lavender and purchase lavender oil products. A great day out for all the family! Stanley Allotments |
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