Forum Topic

West London's Lost Market Gardens

http://www.getwestlondon.co.uk/news/local-news/unearthing-lost-history-market-gardens-6732994Another grant funded project.

Philippa Bond ● 4446d14 Comments

Thanks Jim, I'm none the wiser, but I notice that 4 old pubs are marked on the Uxbridge Road - The Bell, The Feathers and The Green Man and the Old Hats in West Ealing. Although the areas in question do look a bit agricultural.

Gerry Tan ● 4443d

I was wondering about this as there must have been farms producing milk and probably cheese, so was there a kind of cheese local to the area? What about cured meat? If you like old maps you'll probably like this: http://www.britainfromabove.org.uk/

Albertina McNeill ● 4444d

Christine, you might find this article about Apple Day interesting: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Day Unfortunately the Common Ground website (commonground.org.uk) is undergoing something or other at the moment. Golden Delicious is regarded as a very bland variety by keen apple fans. This is a rather good article about heritage apple varieties: http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2011/mar/14/apple-britain-gala-traditional There are apples and apples...Our former neighbours planted apple trees just after the war and the ones in our garden were planted to help with their pollination. Unfortunately ours deteriorated but the pear tree next door is still strutting its stuff.

Albertina McNeill ● 4444d

Gerry was saying:"before the railways came, Ealing around the St Mary's-Warwick-Grange Road area used to be orchards, veggie farms and smallholdings and pig farms". Reach for your glasses ..the text is not too clear!

Jim Lawes ● 4444d

Precisely, I am really concerned that so many are being cut down and that street trees are being removed to allow access for drivers to park in front gardens. If they are removed as a result of becoming diseased they are not automatically replaced. You have to request it. A house was demolished across from ours and the garden, which was full of fruit trees and conifers, was wiped out. The following year the same thing happened to the garden immediately next to ours to allow for an enormous outhouse. Our bird feeders have remained full and we're thinking of putting up bird boxes to encourage them to come back and make up for what has happened. Some ash trees have decided to grow in the wrong place in our garden and I'd love to transplant them rather than just cut them down.

Albertina McNeill ● 4444d

which is to substantially if not wholly miss the point, I fear.Apart from the valid points made about preserving local varieties, trees, perhaps especially fruit trees, bring something to the environment which is lost when they are grubbed up.

Tony Colliver ● 4444d

Philippa, in the early 50s when we were sussing the property market looking for the cheapest of houses, we asked what Ealing used to be like...they said that before the railways came, Ealing around the St Mary's-Warwick-Grange Road area used to be orchards, veggie farms and smallholdings and pig farms. How things have changed.

Gerry Tan ● 4444d

So Bramleys, Golden Delicious, etc don't taste like how apples are meant to taste?  I don't buy fruit from Supermarkets.

Christine Daniels ● 4444d

It takes years to grow decent sized trees and many of the best tasting apples and pears are not varieties that the shops in particular supermarkets stock.  Supermarkets stock varieties that have been grown for their long life and not for their flavour.

Philippa Bond ● 4444d

Grafting onto rootstock is cloning. All Bramleys, Golden Delicious, etc. are clones of the original.

Fred Hunt ● 4444d

But they are still apples and pears?  I was trying to cheer Albertina due to the loss of the trees.Apple trees are grafted onto roots aren't they?  Is it like that with all fruit trees?  How do you clone an apple?

Christine Daniels ● 4444d

But those shops are selling cloned apples and pears from Chile, France, New Zealand, South Africa, etc. and not local varieties grown local.

Fred Hunt ● 4444d

You can buy apples and pears in loads of shops.

Christine Daniels ● 4444d

A garden close to a slip road by Greenford Flyover was full of fruit trees until the house was sold recently when they were immediately cut down. The pear and apple trees in it were probably modern varieties but it was heartbreaking to see it happen. The pear tree was so productive that the fruit would spill onto the pavement from one of its branches. The street trees in Clifton Road are apple trees: http://greenford365.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/apple-tree-clifton-road/

Albertina McNeill ● 4444d