Authors and their Books Introduction Fruit Farming in the Cam Valley: An horticultural, social and economic history, by Jonathan Spain, price £25, A4, 488 pages including illustrations, maps, bibliography and index. To order a copy please email: jrspain1@ hotmail.com. (Tel: 01763 262007) Based on a wide range of documentary sources and extensive interviews with local fruit growers and fruit pickers, this study records, whilst it is still within living memory, the history of the local fruit industry, which played such an important role in the economy and society of the Cam Valley. Extract Melbourn and Meldreth In 1902 Charles G. Harper, (1863–1943), the author of a series of popular travel books, described the two villages thus: ‘Everyone in Melbourn lives on fruit. In other words, this is a great fruit-growing district. This village, and its neighbour, Meldreth, specialise in greengages, and from the railway station that serves the two many hundreds of tons of that fruit are despatched to London in the season … Little wonder then, that when one comes down from the bleak downs and heaths of Royston to these sheltered levels, the swelling contours of the windy pastures and breezy cornfields give place to long lines of orchards’.1 Harper captured the ubiquitous nature of fruitgrowing in the two villages and its central importance to the local economy. Given the proximity of the two villages it would be misleading to treat them as separate entities. Orchard ownership crossed the parish boundary. Both the Palmer and Howard families, originating in Meldreth, leased or owned property, farmland and sizeable orchards in Melbourn; the large Bury Lane orchard, situated in Meldreth, was part of the Melbourn Bury estate, owned by the Fordham family. In terms of population and size Melbourn and Meldreth have always been two of the largest villages in the valley and this partly explains their importance. Their smaller neighbours had fewer orchards. The ease of access to the local railway station, situated in the centre of Meldreth, but lying close to Melbourn, provided further stimulus. But there was always a strong tradition of fruit-growing in these two villages.
The Ministry of Agriculture’s survey of the West Cambs. fruit-growing area characterised the Melbourn district as one of large holdings, ranging from 10 to 50 or 60, acres, in the hands of farmers growing fruit in conjunction with mixed farming.2 This needs to be qualified in two respects. Firstly, this was the case from the 1870s through to the end of the First World War, after which the larger holdings were cultivated by specialist fruit growers. In the case of the Howard and Palmer families these holdings also became much larger, in the order of one to two hundred acres. Secondly, in Melbourn and Meldreth, smallholder fruit-growing remained an important part of the mix, integrated with other trades and occupations. Orchards were also attached to the large residential properties of the middle and professional classes in the villages. Harper’s comment that ‘Everyone in Melbourn [and Meldreth] lives on fruit’, was no exaggeration. Biography Graduating from York University, with First Class honours in history, and employed in a variety of historyrelated jobs and archival work, Jonathan has lived in Shepreth, and before that Foxton, since the early 1980s. He has previously published a wide range of articles and pamphlets on historical subjects and has a local history blog site, jonathanspain.wordpress.com. Jonathan has given numerous talks to local history groups.
Footnotes 1 Charles G. Harper, The Cambridge, Ely and King’s Lynn Road. The Great Fenland Highway, 1902, p.131. 2 J.F. Ward, ‘West Cambs. Fruit-Growing Area. A Survey of the Soils and Fruit, 1925-7’, Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Bulletin No.61, 1933, pp.35, 40.
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