Indeed, the twenty fourth of February this year is of particular note, marking the 100th anniversary of Tann’s arriving at Crapes from their former London home.
Guy, my grandfather, just short of 22, his sister Lillie and recently widowed mother, Winifred, arrived in Aldham to the prospect of no mains water, no mains drainage and no electricity. In addition to a weather boarded cottage, a similarly clad brick based barn, some sixteen acres of grassland/pasture, with about 100 fruit trees dotted about, included in the acquistition..
Guy, escaped from the family stationary business in Chancery Lane to train in fruit growing, working for two years at W.Seabrook in the area around Boreham, just east of Chelmsford. His employer advised them on a suitable property to purchase.
The only market for produce at that time was London. The only sensible means of transport for goods, the railway to London, direct from Marks Tey.
An important consideration for fruit growing is the vulnerability to damaging spring frosts. The slight south facing slope and the proximity of the railway station at Marks Tey ticked two important boxes. Notably, the soil at Boreham is considerably more suited to the growing of apples than the gravelly glacial deposits here on the south side of Aldham!
Labour was easily found throughout the year. Charlie, the horse soon acquired, worked both the land and a constant shuttle between the farm and Marks Tey railway station taking fruit and often returning with shoddy railed down from the City to be loaded on to a cart for organic matter – by hand.
Much of the farm was soon planted with apple trees with a few rows of plums, Czar and Victoria. Seabrooks Black (currants) , loganberries and some flowers where grown. Forty women from the village used to bring wooden stools to pick the currants. At Loganberry time, Winifred sat in a makeshift tent out of the sun with a needle removing prickles from fingers!
Charlie was sadly replaced after 16 years with a small Ransomes tracked tractor for cultivating between trees, later, a Grey Fergie transformed the workload here with these able to tow a sprayer rather than Charlie pulling a tank of chemical with a pump. Mains water arrived in 1938.
Yes, it seems a lifetime ago, I don’t remember most of the above!
I do remember when the Grey Fergie was replaced by a Ferguson 35 diesel model, to this day we are using its immediate successor being the 35X and still younger MF135
Electricity first arrived in 1961, this was just after my father had begun replanting apple trees as the originals were both very large and time consuming, the varieties not so popular with the marketing scene beginning to change. From this time gradually we began selling our fruit more locally.
Weather has always been in control. Guy had problems with ‘frost years’ during the 1930s.
Hail storms during August bank holiday 1958 caused a devastating crop loss, as did some wet harvests during the early 1960s when Gleosporium rots caused high levels of loss in storage.
The frosts of April and May 1997 left just 12 bushels of apples from the whole farm.I secured the postman’s round in the adjacent village for a year!
The trends in weather pattern have now become cyclonic – very difficult to predict even from a regional weather forecast just how localised airflow or which side of a hedge a critical limit will be breached.
After the 1997 experience , a secondhand Dutch Light Structure was acquired from a local, retiring smallholder. It still stands – just. This marked the beginning of a venture to grow a range of vegetables for running alongside fruit for our local customers. For many years a source of labour during school holidays and Saturdays flowed from a neighbouring family, the youngest Ben, organises and oversees the vegetables to this day.
Probably the most significant improvement between the approach to growing here in 1922 and today, is that we are NOT using chemicals to control insects, diseases or weeds. Also a lot less tractor diesel consumed and no longer have annual pruning bonfires. Guy was routinely using DDT, Nicotine, Lead Arsenate, DNOC winterwash. Lime Sulphur was being used into the 1970s. We need every insect for pollinating, and plenty of soil fungal activity to release nutrients.
Remember, the weather will determine the crops grown here in the future. There are realistic financial limits as to how far extremes of weather can be mitigated against. Burning wax candles, straw bales and old oil along orchard rows during May night frosts are not environmentally acceptable.
It would be good to mark this year with an unscathed apple crop!
(Perhaps I should write a book).
Crapes Fruit Farm 