CHAPTER XI 

 EVESHAM AND ITS STORY 



ACCORDING to local historians, it is over a thousand 

 years since market - gardening was first introduced 

 into Evesham by the monks who founded the great 

 abbey, and the industry has been followed there con- 

 tinuously ever since. 



Whether or not the local historians are warranted in 

 their statement, I will not stay to discuss ; but certain 

 it is that the great developments have all been brought 

 about within the last two decades, and, apart from the 

 important consideration of the fertility of the soil and 

 the exceptionally favourable climate in the famous Vale, 

 those developments may be attributed mainly to three 

 factors railway facilities, agricultural depression, and 

 the telephone. 



When Arthur Young visited the district, about the 

 year 1770, he found from 300 to 400 acres devoted to 

 market-gardening. In these days, however, the ques- 

 tion of distribution presented the most serious of diffi- 

 culties. Having grown their produce, the market- 

 gardeners had to take it by road to Birmingham, Wor- 

 cester, Tewkesbury, Gloucester, Warwick, or elsewhere, 

 in order to find customers. By 1845 the area under 

 cultivation as garden land had increased to a little less 

 than 600 acres. This was only a comparatively slight 



