Where once were gardens

The area around Harmondsworth - now mainly covered by Heathrow Airport - was a centre for market gardening in the early 20th century. The 1851 census shows only 1 market gardener - Frances Cooper, a Shropshire widow. By 1901, there were at least 20 market gardeners and 120 market garden labourers. A principal crop was strawberries, which would have been carried to London on the Great Western Railway.                                                                                                           

One of the principal firms was Wild and Robbins, whose farm lay near the Sipson crossroads. The business began when Thomas Wild took on Rowland Richard Robbins as a junior partner. The 1901 census shows them in neighbouring houses - Wild, aged 53, and Robbins, aged 28. By 1931, they were growing a variety of vegetables, from cabbages, leeks and potatoes to kale, marrows, spinach and 'chokes'.

East of the same crossroads in 1911, Frederick Jonathan Smith is listed as a jam manufacturer at Wall Garden Farm. His father moved there after becoming bankrupt and set up a jam factory to make use of the area's fruit.