Roy Pinnock born in 1933, belongs to one of the two families who grew watercress in Sopwell: the Pinnocks and the Lees.. Roy describes the watercress industry: how the watercress was grown in Riverside Road, where the Watercress Wildlife Association is now; the sinking of a borehole; how they dealt with the watercress in frosty weather; and the packing and distribution. The Pinnocks also had other beds in Garston, Old Welwyn and Park Street.
Interview date: 4 April 2013. Interviewer: Sandy Norman.
Seeing the photo of the beds looking back at the houses in (then Longmire Road) brings back memories of growing up at no. 26, in the forties.
I well remember taking the vegetable peelings down to Mr Pinnock, where he had a cauldron of vegetable matter steaming away.
I have vague memories of a large chicken run where occasionally men in gaitors carrying shotguns would clear the coops and run of rats.
Happy days. Great childhood.
Fantastic!