Raspberry Picking at Cottingley Allotments
The raspberries were sold to the Smith's local jam factory
A newspaper article (Guardian Chronicle) of 1965 was written when the
Raspberry Gardens were sold.
It states that the land was
held in trust for the relations of the late E. A. Briggs and administered by
Armitage and Norton, the Bradford chartered accountants. The land was
rented first from Mr Ferrand and later from Mr. Briggs by the allotment
holders.
The land was originally owned by the Ferrand family as part of their St.Ives
estate. The late Mr. Briggs who bought the land, also bought the land on which stands the
Cottingley Manor school. Arthur Harry died in 1920 and Arthur Edward died
in 1928.
Fred Fielding remembered the gardens being there in about 1900 so it would appear
that they were first rented out in the late 1800's.
Keighley News August 7th 1926 Page 5.
RASPBERRY GROWING
FLOURISHING INDUSTRY AT COTTINGLEY
There is at least one industry in the Bradford district which is flourishing vigorously and where overtime
is at present the rule. This has its headquarters on the pleasant slope which runs for half a mile or so
from Cottingley Church to Sandy Lane and includes some two hundred acres of as fine raspberry gardens as a
re to be found in the country.
This strip of land was not always the fruitful place it is today. Until about sixty or seventy years ago
it was rough moorland, and there still lives at Cottingley one of the pioneer band of young men who dug
up the heather, removed the boulders, and made ready the barren moorland for cultivation. Mr Tom White,
who is now ninety years of age, has lived to see many bumper crops of raspberries ripen where once the
heather grew.
The gardens are divided into allotments of half or a quarter of an acre in extent, and are given up almost
exclusively to raspberry growing, for which both the soil and the situation are particularly suitable,
for there is nowhere in the district where raspberries of the same size and flavour can be produced.
So amply does the soil repay the cultivators that several gain a comfortable livelihood from the
raspberry crop alone. Such cultivators, of course, have more than one section, and their time is f
ully occupied for the greater part of the year.
SEASON AT ITS HEIGHT
The picking season lasts from a month to six weeks, and is now at its height. While the fruit is
ripening daily the residents in Cottingley turn out en masse into the gardens. Almost all the women
in the village spend the hours which can be spared from baking, washing and other household duties in
the gardens, and the problem of what to do with the school children during the holidays does not exist
at Cottingley. The youngsters go raspberry picking with enthusiasm and earn their extra money like
their elders. At the present time several hundreds are thus engaged.
There is never any difficulty about finding a market for the Cottingley crop. Eager purchasers come
to the gardens and wait literally in queues, so that there is little fruit left over for the markets.
Every evening at this season lines of motor-cars, vans, butchers' carts, etc., are drawn up outside
the gardens, while their occupants wait patiently with baskets, pails, pans, and all kinds of other
vessels, for their share of the crop. A flat rat is fixed at the beginning of the season - this year
it is 10d - and the price does not vary throughout the season.
This electronic mail address must be treated as confidential and may not be transferred to any other person or organisation in accordance with the 1998 Data Protection Act.
All textual content and images on this site © M. Krupa; all rights reserved.
