Watercress industry in Sopwell – Roy Pinnock

Roy PinnockRoy 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.

Comments

  1. John King

    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.

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