A HORTICULTURAL CURIOSITY

[Stanley]

A horticultural Curiosity.

Nobody could ever mistake me for a gardener! I have been known to grow the odd bed of onions or row of parsnips but I have never been bitten by the bug of gardening for pleasure. However, there used to two bushes that I kept an eye on and for quite a strange reason.

When Doreen and I teased out the secrets of the Whitemoor map of 1580 we found a notation that used a bush or tree for a boundary marker. Now it just so happened that on the very spot marked on the map there was a most unusual bush. I had noted it for years and always thought how marvellous it looked when it was in full bloom, and the flowers seemed to last for months.

This bush is on the series of bends where the Barrowford Road snakes round the boundary on the Blacko side of Slipper Hill Lane at the end of the lane up to Blacko Hill Side. I got a fanciful notion that this could be the same bush that was noted in 1580. I knew that this could hardly be true but I set to to identify it. In the end I talked to a man at Kew and sent him a picture and some flowers. He identified it as Olearia x haastii or the Daisy Bush. It’s one of the Aster family and this hybrid was introduced into this country in the late 19th century so my theory was comprehensively shot down.

This wasn’t the end of the matter. The man from Kew was intrigued that there was an example of one growing in an exposed position so far north. He asked me what altitude was growing at and I told him 700 ft, he was very surprised. Then I told him that there were two, there was another in the back yard of the house on the corner of the Lane up to Letcliffe Farm.

It is the latter example that has triggered this piece off. I noticed the other day that it has gone, the yard has been dug out and enlarged and the Olearia x haastii bush is no more. I wonder if they knew what a rare specimen it was? No matter, it was theirs to do with what they liked. But I shall miss it.

Next time you are passing the one near Slipper Hill, just pause and look at it. While you’re their have a look at the wall on that side of the road. Part of it is medieval and there is very old demolition stone in it from some long defunct building. Now just think about that. What was the stone building that was so old that scrap stone from it found its way into that wall? We shall never know but the nearest old building I know of that has been demolished is Malkin Tower.

Now there’s a fascinating thought….. The bottom line is always look at the ground, the vegetation and the walls. They can all tell you something about history.

SCG/09 May 2004