I have a terrific amount of material that I chose not to use in the script of Marsh Fen and Town. In this piece I look how drainage of the Fens for agriculture saw the loss of the cranberry and how it became a "neglected fruit".
We are perhaps familiar with Cranberry Jelly with our Christmas Turkey or Cranberry Juice either by itself or as an ingredient to an exotic cocktail. It is perhaps hard to imagine that cranberries were once a significant crop in the Fens of Lincolnshire near Wainfleet and Friskney. However, the cranberries you consume today mostly originate from North America and are a different plant, namely American Vaccinium macrocarpon, whereas those growing in Britain, albeit a rarity nowadays, are vaccinium oiycoccus a plant that yields berries about half the size. This cranberry grows in wet soils with low nitrate levels and today can be found in some boggy moorland of Northern England and Scotland. In the 18th century it was found in the Fens of Lincolnshire where it thrived until the land was drained for agriculture and was lost along with the Decoy ponds and their accompanying wildfowl and waders and the Fen ponies called locally “Fen Tits”.
The transition of this landscape and what it was both before and after drainage is given in this account published in 1852:
DIGGINGS BY A FEN-FARMER.
Holland Fen, 22,000 acres of fine loamy soil, lying west of Boston, was drained and enclosed shortly after 1795 ; before which it was an open common, stocked by persons who claimed rights. The rental before enclosure was 3600/., but directly after, it let for 25,300/. A farmer is mentioned by Young, who, " before the draining and enclosure, paid 20s. rent for a cottage and croft. His stock on the fen was 400 sheep, 500 geese, 7 milch cows, 10 or 12 young horses, and 10 young beasts. Such a person, if ever one was heard of, must have been injured by enclosure; for never could be known a more perfect contrast between the rent and stock of a holding. But he now rents (1798) about 50 acres of the enclosure at 25s. an acre, and greatly prefers his present situation, not only for comfort, but profit also." And since that prodigious increase in the value of this land, it has still been progressing, letting now for upwards of 2/. per acre, and producing abundant crops of corn and pulse.
Wildmore Fen, West Fen, and East Fen, east of the river Witham, and north of Boston, comprise about 40,000 acres. Previous to the commencement of the present century, these districts formed a hazy region of boggy forage-ground and dreary swamp. In 1793, it was estimated that 40,000 sheep, or one per acre, rotted on the three fens. Nor was this the only evil, for the number stolen was incredible ; so wild a country nursed up a race of people as wild as the fen, and the sheep were taken off by whole flocks. One who visited Wildmore Fen at the close of the last century says :
“Whole acres are covered with thistles and nettles, four feet high and more. There are men that have vast numbers of geese, even to one thousand and more; if there are any persons who profit, it is those who keep geese. There may be five sheep an acre kept in summer on Wildmore and West Fens, besides many horses, young cattle, and geese. Upon driving West Fen in 1784, there were found, 16th and 17th September, 3936 head of horned cattle. In dry years it is perfectly white with sheep. In East are 2000 acres of water. Sir Joseph Banks had the goodness to order a boat, and accompanied me into the heart this fen, which, in this wet season, had the appearance of chain of lakes, bordered by great crops of reed. It is general from three to four feet deep in water, and in one place, a channel between two lakes, five feet to six feet. The bottom a blue clay, under a loose black mud, two feet to two and a half feet deep. In both East and Wildmore Kens the poor horses, called Wildmore tits, get on the ice in winter, and are screeved, that is, their legs spreading outward, the wretched animals are split."
He also mentions an ingenious and very simple tool in use in East Fen," viz., a sledge for going on the ice. " It is a small frame," he says, " that slides on four horse bones, the driver pushing himself forward with a pitchfork." These notes will sufficiently indicate the nature, aspect, and agricultural management of these low lands at that period ; we may, however, add that about 6000 acres of the lowest and wettest fen, viz., East Fen, were water or shaking bog, the water from four to six feet deep, standing in pools from 60 to 600 acres extent, and abounding in fish and wild fowl. About 300 acres were denominated the Mossberry or Cranberry Fen, from the quantity of Cranberries which grew upon it. Several decoys for entrapping wild fowl were established here, and at that time the metropolis was principally supplied with ducks, widgeon, and teal, from these decoys. one season, a few winters prior to the enclosures, 10 decoys furnished the astonishing number of 31,200 birds for the London market. A writer who lives in Kyme Fen says : “I have times out of number seen cows loosed out of their hovels and swim across river with nothing but their faces and horns above water, and then take footing at mid-rib deep, or less, but not one spot of dry land, and then forage till weary, and return to their hovels in the like swimming position. I have also known, in the whole parish of Dockdyke, not two houses communicable for whole winters round, and sometimes scarcely in summer. We used to carry the sheep to pasture in flat-bottomed boat, clip them in ditto, and afterwards fetch them away in the same conveyance."
The drainage of these tracts was executed by Mr. Rennie, in pursuance of an Act passed in 1801; and it was here that the principle of providing separate outlets for the low-land and hill waters was first carried into effect. The rapid floods of the upland becks are intercepted catch-water drains surrounding the district, whilst the sluggish fen-water seeks the outfall through canals upon a lower level. Wheat, oats, and beans are grown upon the clay, and wheat, oats, and barley on the sandy land in West and Wildmore Fens, the intermediate crops being seeds, turnips, and cole. About half the seeds are grazed by long-wool sheep, the rest being mown for hay. Under-drainage has been extensively carried on; but much land yet remains to be made friable by its influence. The farm-buildings are pretty good, the hedges neat, the stock well fed; and there is every appearance of superior cultivation. In East Fen all the peat lands have been clayed, and a large portion several times. Under-draining is practised to some extent, the pipes being laid in the subsoil of clay. The courses of cropping are very various, but the best farmers take three-fifths of white corn. Many beasts are wintered with oilcake and straw, and sheep are grazed on the seeds, and fattened on the cole. Coleseed, wheat, oats, and seeds are the principal crops; and the land is manured frequently in consequence of its moisture and porosity. Oilcake for cattle in the farm-yards, and bones for the green crop, are universal items in fen husbandry. The peat soil is not difficult to work, but is peculiarly infested with twitch (couch); the light, yet rich earth forms a fine matrix for the growth of its long penetrating fibres, and great labour is necessary in constantly eradicating it. Field mice undermine the land, and devour immense quantities of cropping. The wireworm also revels here, as neither pressing with the roller, nor trampling with the flock, can give a solidity to the ground sufficient to check its ravages. wheats are much blown and destroyed ; and the best preventive hitherto is Crosskill's clod-crusher, and perhaps some other rival implements, which astonishingly compress the soil, and improve the crop.
In the parishes on the coast, north-east of Boston, are three different kinds of land and management. The newer marsh lands are arable and pasture, chiefly the former ; the grass is well adapted for feeding horses, and the sheep upon it produce a great quantity of meat and fleeces of great weight. The ploughed land is of the best quality, bringing heavy crops of wheat, oats, and beans. More inland is the higher ground on which the villages stand and here is some of the luxuriant grazing land for which Lincolnshire is noted. The herbage is thick, forming a sward of a soft and carpet-like texture ; sometime swelling into tufts, but generally even and smooth, and always soft to the feet. It is in small enclosures, and neither the fences or ditches are kept in good order. The arable land is not generally well managed, though considerable improvements have been made of late years. The principal care of the farmer was to manage his live-stock and keep his pastures in order, whilst the working of his arable land was neglected, and the grass received more than fair proportion of the weak manure from the yard and stable. The practice of taking two or three corn crops and a fallow has not been forgotten, and but little clover or seeds are sown. There are instances, however, of more judicious management: root crops and coleseed are grown, oilcake is given to the beasts in winter, and under-draining has been commenced. Between this belt of land and the proper fen is a line of meadow-land, called now, as the days of our Saxon progenitors the "lngs" ; a considerable portion is mown, and the hay partly consumed, on the land, the remainder carried to the farmsteads situated upon the ground just referred to. The drainage improvements so ameliorated this low ground that much has been brought under the plough, and it now produces good oats, wheat, turnips, and coleseed. The superior grazing lands' extend south-westward from Boston. The beasts fed are generally of the Lincoln breed, that is, they are large shorthorns though both Scotch and Hereford cattle are sometimes purchased. They are bought in spring, usually at Boston May fair, and sold fat in autumn; the best land feeding a bullock an acre, without any supply of linseed cake or other additional food. The sheep-pastures will often carry eight or nine sheep per acre, and they fatten the animals without the assistance of other green or dry food to finish them off. The arable land intermingled with this pasture is very productive in corn, pulse, and root crops, and large breadths have been broken for mustard, and chicory. The rich grazing land continues from Spalding, south-eastward, through South Holland. Peculiar value belongs to certain spots; and the grazing farms of first quality arc known throughout the whole district by their names; and many of the better fields are famed the hill-piece," the " doles”, “the Jews meadows" &c. The grass-land in the marsh, nearer the sea, causes scouring in young stock, and great injury is occasioned by the saltness of the water in the creeks and ditches: a considerable quantity of sheep, however, are there bred. On the friable soil of the marshes large crops are grown, both of turnips, coleseed, oats, wheat, peas, beans, and potatoes.— Agricultural Gazette 1852
As can be seen it was not just cranberries that were lost, but also an eco system and a system of management of that together with the various occupations and incomes. The wildfowl, cranberries, fleeces and meat provided an income for the fenman and food for the tables of those in the large towns and cities, predominantly London. It is very easy for us to judge these changes and the loss of environment, but this should be balanced with what was gained, the industrial growth achieved as more labour was freed up from food production to other activity. A cost and a benefit that remains to this day.
The loss of the cranberry harvest, a wild uncultivated one, was an indicator of change and the success of drainage. The significance of cranberries to the economy was significant in that the 300 acre area yielded 4000 pecks of cranberries in a bumper year and 2000 pecks in a typical year. In the late eighteenth century pickers were paid five shillings a peck and they sold for between 30 and 50 schillings a peck in the London market, the primary consumer of them. The cranberry was highly regarded and if a baker produced a cranberry tart it often sold at a premium that was only affordable by the rich. As the fens were drained the legacy of the cranberry only remained in the area by the name “Cranberry Farm” alongside the various “Decoy Farms” that were found throughout the Fens, although many of them have disappeared. The East and Wildmore Fens near Wainfleet and Friskney were not the only places to grow cranberries, but they were the most productive. Indeed, prior to drainage cranberries were harvested elsewhere towards Whittlesey in Cambridgeshire and Holland Fen in South Lincolnshire. Drainage saw these disappear rapidly within a few years.
Cranberries were harvested elsewhere in Britain in Yorkshire, Cumbria, Scotland and Ireland, but the Lincolnshire cranberries were considered superior, sweeter and had a longer season as they could be picked later due to the warmer temperatures. However, looking at the import figures in 1750’s in Liverpool, London and Bristol and the mentions in London markets I estimate that only about 50% of the supply was from within the British Isles by the end of that century they were almost entirely imported from Sweden, Russia, the Netherlands and New England. By 1825 the larger American cranberry dominated this high value market as they transformed from a wild to a cultivated fruit by selective management of plants, a process that was duplicated in Canada and the Netherlands.
There followed a forced culture of the American variety of cranberry in Britain, as fresh cranberries were an expensive luxury preferred over the preserved imported cranberries that were in themselves expensive and a luxury fruit. This forced culture was on a very small market-garden basis. This prompted a Scotsman to bemoan the loss of wild Scottish cranberries in the Inverness Courier in 1825:
“A great demand for cranberries has induced their forced culture in England, while a large proportion of the vast quantities spontaneously growing on the Highland moors is left to wither beneath the frosts of November. Perhaps it would be a good speculation to gather them at the proper season for the London market. The American cranberry comes to this country in a state of high preservation; and though ours is not so large, the flavour is not inferior, and the jars containing them could be transported to the metropolis of England in a few days. Poor children, and aged people, incapable of harvest work thankfully engage to gather cranberries on modest terms.”
In other words there was a source of cheap labour for the harvesting of wild Scottish cranberries! It was largely the good supply of cheap peasant labour that ensured the continued cropping and exporting of wild cranberries from Russia, but as the Russian Empire collapsed the supply of cranberries from Russia to Britain faded.
It has to be understood that the 300 acres of wild cranberries near Friskney, along with the harvesting of wildfowl by decoys was significant. But the drainage of this into agricultural land, initially mixed farming and pasture and ultimately mostly arable only farms was and is deemed as progress. The land improved in value and produced essential crops for an industrialised nation. I find it interesting that as this change happened, what had been before, despite being rich in its own wild harvests and grazing, was regarded as wasteland in the moderniser’s eyes. This is illustrated in the comments of the judges of the 1841 stacking competition held by Wrangle and East Lincolnshire Agricultural Society:
In 1841 Mr. Chas Brooks of Leake, Mr G. Saul of Sibsey and Mr. P. Stevenson of Leverton took two days to travel a circular route of 80 miles in the region to judge the stacks in the area. The winner was Mr J. Plummer of Freiston, a farmer known throughout the area for his fine stacks, and he won £2 2s. The comments of note are in regard to a Mr. Nicholson’s farm in Friskney Fen; “…..the judges expressed great pleasure and satisfaction at the general improvement visible in agricultural pursuits and begged to notice, particularly the farm in Friskney Fen, belonging to, and occupied by, Mr Nicholson, which a few years ago was Fen producing little or nothing but cranberries, and occupied by acquatic fouls, but now is a highly cultivated farm producing many large and beautiful specimens of the staff of human existence (viz. wheat stacks and other produce). In the centre thereof stands a very neat and convenient building necessary to carry on the most approved principle, and at the approach thereto is built a lodge or cottage, which would do credit to a first-rate architect.”
This shows a clear bias of the age to the needs of man that shaped our countryside and saw the loss of the Lincolnshire cranberry.
As for the national cranberry requirement, today it is dominated by American supply. There were attempts to cultivate it commercially in Britain. The American plant became a cultivated folly to be found in gardens. By 1903 it was largely a lost fruit and was described as such in an article titled ‘Negelected Fruits’ in the Newcastle Daily Chronicle of 1903:
“The cranberry has been made a most important fruit by commercial growers in America, Canada and Holland. The annual yield of the cranberry fields of Cape Cod are enormous. Tons of the fruit are imported into England and make good prices. The cranberry will succeed here equally well with the cloudberry, blackberry and bilberry. Tested, it has been found to produce most abundant crops in England. In moist situations, there is no difficulty regarding successful culture. With the aid of peat earth, stones and water the cranberry can be grown as easily as the currant. The majority of berry fruits contain sugar pectin or albumen in proportions to make them exceedingly healthful. It is remarkable that while for years enormous consignments of cranberries have been entering our ports, no effort of magnitude has been made to raise them at home for home demand. The blossoms of the cranberry are very pretty. The great aim of the grower should be to secure slow short sturdy growth then the fruit will be fine and the crop plentiful.”
Today I have a book on my shelf entitled “Wild Food” – under the cranberry it states “….in Britain one cannot find it in large enough quantities to make the inclusion of special recipes for it worthwhile.”
Thus it appears the cranberry in many ways is a “neglected fruit.”
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