Summer Strawberries

Summer Strawberries

There is nothing quite like a glorious English summer's day and going to pick your own strawberries.  It's just heaven!!!  Blue skies, sunshine and no traffic!!! In fact it is so lovely and peaceful that you can even hear the sky larks singing as they fly high over head.  Then there are the children, parents and grandparents excitedly talking while filling their baskets with the delicious fruit and even trying a couple, just to make sure they are up to standard!  I think it is something everyone should try and do.

For me it brings back many memories of fruit picking with my own children and more recently with my grandchildren.  It is so good for them to see where the fruit really comes from instead of just buying it at the supermarket.  It's cheaper too!

Here in Locks Heath, not too far from where I live, strawberries have been grown for many, many years and I think they are the best in the world, very very sweet and completely red right through.

Back in the 18th Century, the common land was divided into plots and sold off to local people.  Strawberries grow well here on the stoney soil, so it was a crop that many people decided to grow.  The early ripening made them desirable in markets every where.  When the Swanwick railway station opened in 1888, large quantities of strawberries were soon being sent all over the country.

The picking season was the busiest time of the year from the end of May to mid July.  Everyone was involved in picking the crops, families, friends and neighbours were all pickers and children were also given time off school to help.  Gypsies and the unemployed were also hired.



Initially the strawberries were transported in large wicker baskets called 'gallons', made by the prisoners in Winchester Prison.  Eventually they were put in a standard sized container called 'chips' made from strips of wood woven in a rectangle shape and stapled together.

In a good season before the second world war, there would be up to 160 trains laid on specially and the queues of wagons could be seen lined up the street at the train station, awaiting their turn to be unloaded and then transported.  As well as trains, anything from bicycles to lorries were used to transport the strawberries to the towns and cities.

I am told that the peak of the strawberry industry was during the 1930s and then it began to slip into decline.  Much of the land was sold off for housing with the demand for development.

Strawberries are still grown in the area in a few of the fields where you can still pick your own and I hope it will continue for the many generations that follow.  There is nothing like a bowl of strawberries, ice cream and of course cream, yum!