A return to Victorian values

摘要

From productive plot to paddling pool and back again, the rise, fall and revival of a Lincolnshire kitchen garden is charted by SIMON GARBUTT. The old, brick-walled kitchen garden at Normanby Hall, near Scunthorpe, north Lincolnshire, has a chequered history. Built in 1817, for 3,150 pound, it stands, as was the fashion of those times, tucked away behind a belt of trees 400m (1/4mile) from the house. There have been at least three halls on the site; the present one was built about 1828. Though fairly small, at just 0.4 hectare (1 acre), the intensively-cultivated garden provided year-round fruit and vegetables for the Sheffield family and their army of servants. It flourished throughout the 19th century. Victorian gardeners were highly skilled inforcing and retarding the produce, and planting for successive crops: peas were expected to be available from May to November, cabbages between April and December. Even pineapples were raised at the garden. When the family was not in residence, hampers of fresh goods were sent by rail once or twice a week to their homes in London or Scotland.