Lavender

Lavender blue, dilly dilly, Rosemary green, When I am King, dilly dilly, you shall be Queen

Swathes of blue flowers gently wafting in the breeze, delicious scent and squadrons of butterflies and bees… you could be standing in a field in Provence or you could be transported back in time to a field near where you are now in Market Deeping.

Lavender was reported in the Stamford Mercury as being grown in this area as far back as 1750. Records show that it was first introduced into this country around 1568 and we can speculate that not long after that it was grown here. It was, of course, grown in the South of France before that and it was certainly known to the Romans. In Elizabethan times it was used for medical purposes, flavouring food and creating love potions; today it is used for perfuming cosmetics and soaps, making pot pourri, lavender water and flavouring food.

Lavender production reached its zenith here in the nineteenth century, largely due to the business skills of William Holland, known locally as Squire Holland. He was the second child of Dr William and Sarah Holland and was born on 21st November 1818 in Church Street, Market Deeping at the family home, Holland House. Trained as a chemist by Dr Page of Market Deeping, he achieved his MPS (Member of the Pharmaceutical Society) status in 1840 and was then able to help his father make medicines at the distillery.

William married into a wealthy Irish Protestant land-owning family in 1854, when he wed Amelia Roper in Brighton, and was able greatly to expand the business after his father’s death in 1851. Lavender was grown in the fields around the distillery, in what is now Still Close, and also on Mr Holland’s fields at Langtoft, Baston and Deeping St Nicholas, where remains of this industry can still be found. It was said that you could smell Deeping before you saw it!

Just before harvest time, gypsy caravans would arrive in Godsey Lane, then known as Tinker’s Lane. Both young and old would help with picking the flowers, cut just as they were beginning to fade. The lavender was tied into sheaves and taken to the distillery as soon as possible.

At the distillery the cut plants were put into a retort, a large vessel partly full of water. This was closed with a lid or door and then heated. As the water reached boiling point a mixture of steam and oil rose from it, which ran through a pipe to a condenser. The steam and oil turned back into liquid and was fed into another pipe to a separator or large tank, where the oil floated to the top and the water drained away. This lavender water was not wasted though, as the ladies of Deeping would be waiting at the distillery door with their bottles to be filled, when it was cool, for a few pence.

Lavender water was used for personal washing but also for washing clothes, helping to keep moths away with its disinfecting properties. Mr Holland sold his lavender oil for medicinal purposes and was also a supplier to Yardley’s soap works in London. Lavender was also used to tend battlefield wounds, as it has anti-bacterial and antifungal properties. On his death in 1899, Squire Holland left a fortune of £34,000 and the business was taken over by Richardson’s of Leicester. This company were medical suppliers and pill manufacturers and had been one of Holland’s major suppliers. It was managed by Richard Stroud until 1909 and was then taken over by Auguste Payen (pictured left), a carpenter by trade who used the company as a paying hobby.

In March 1916 it ceased to be known as Holland’s Distillery and was sold to Mr Joennson of Market Buildings, Missing Lane, East London; it was known simply as the herb farm in Kelly’s 1919 Directory.

Just before harvest time, gypsy caravans would arrive in Godsey Lane, then known as Tinker’s Lane

While in 1916, ‘The Perfumery and Essential Oil Record’ reported that there were a few lavender fields in Market Deeping, they were ploughed up and turned over to potatoes during the First World War, due to food shortages. Wholesale production may have ended but it hasn’t meant the end of a love affair with lavender!

Try delicious lavender fudge from Deepng Fudge Tea Rooms, Swines Meadow Farm Nursery

Geo Diamonds based on the geometric shapes used to cut diamonds.

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