Watercress and flowers
E N MOODY & SONS LTD, NURSERYMEN

A continuing supply of good quality water is needed to grow watercress and this is something that Bourne has had in abundance for thousands of years. It was therefore inevitable that someone would begin such a venture and in the late 19th century, Mr Edwin Nathaniel Moody decided to give it a try. 

He was a nurseryman who established the town's first watercress beds in 1896 on land to the south of the Wellhead that he rented from the Burghley Estate Trust and soon he was producing so much cress that he was sending wholesale supplies by rail to the markets in London and Leicester as well as selling it retail at his shop.

A trade card for E N Moody (above) showing workers picking watercress from 
the Bourne beds ready for market, circa 1914. The view is facing south with 
the Red Hall visible behind the trees on the right, St Peter's Pool on the left 
and Cavalry House and the gateway to the Red Hall in South Street beyond. 
The photograph below shows the watercress beds as they were in 1915.  

The picture below shows the site of the watercress beds today although trees now 
obscure much of what could be seen in the background in earlier times.

By 1911, a borehole had been sunk to boost water supplies to the watercress beds and production was at its peak. A report on the cultivation of watercress in Bourne described the industry as being unique to South Lincolnshire and added: 

To successfully grow cress for marketing and transporting purposes, it is essential that there is an inexhaustible supply of water. At Bourne, there are three distinct beds which comprise one acre, all neatly laid out and highly productive. The beds are fed by means of two springs, one sunk by Mr Moody himself, and this supply is especially abundant, giving thousands of gallons of water daily. The beds are superintended practically during the whole year. Cress required for cutting for marketable purposes is usually planted in August and during the winter months, plants need a good deal of attention, frost playing havoc with them if not properly seen to and frost damage can be particularly harmful, especially in May when the cress is ready for cutting.

The bed nearest the spring is almost invariably the most productive and it is from this bed that the plants are used for transplanting. The amount of cress sold retail is small, practically the whole of it being sent direct to markets in London and elsewhere. When cutting, about 70 hampers are despatched each week, that is by weight, 500 stones or three tons. This is quite remarkable for such a small and little known industry.

The cress beds, which covered three and a half acres, have now disappeared. They were managed by Mr Moody until 1955 when he retired to live at Mitcham in Surrey and the business was taken over by Spalding Urban District Council which became responsible for growing and marketing the cress under the trading name of the Hereward Watercress Company Limited. Lettuce and cauliflowers were also grown on the site in season for the main markets in the area and the business produced a profit of around £1,000 a year for the authority.

In September 1969, the beds were bought from the Burghley Estate Trust by South Lincolnshire Water Board which continued to run them until April 1974 when they were closed down and filled in. Further cress beds that had been established by Mr Moody at the rear of Harrington Street (now Baldwin Grove) and at Kate's Bridge on the former site of Waterside Nurseries, were also closed down.

Photo: Courtesy Michael McGregor

The borehole at the watercress beds being capped and sealed with cement grout in 
February 1977 (above). The seal however, became corroded  and worn over the years 
by the underground pressure and in February 2003 it burst in several places, spurting 
forth like a huge garden sprinkler although much of the excess drained 
into the Bourne Eau which runs nearby.

Woodland Nurseries off Exeter Street, which Mr Moody founded, were also a major producer of cut flowers during the early part of the 20th century. The company, then known as Messrs E N Moody and Sons Ltd, was particularly renowned for winter chrysanthemums and growers from all parts of the world visited regularly to inspect their growing techniques.

Nine acres of glasshouses had been developed over a period of thirty years and the complex even had its own water supply from a borehole sunk on the premises in 1924. During that time it had become a massive flower-producing factory and blooms were regularly despatched to all parts of the country. The company had also developed a system of propagating and planting that enabled them provide flowers grown in controlled conditions under glass for market out of season and were therefore able to provide chrysanthemums for ten months of the year.

The firm had become so well known that the Ministry of Agriculture organised annual Growers' Walks which enabled visitors from the Midlands and East Anglia see the flowers at their best and talk to selected members of the staff who were placed at strategic points around the glasshouse complex to answer technical questions on growing, glasshouse structure and maintenance, heating systems, pests and diseases. The visits were so popular that at one such event in December 1959, a total of 400 people turned up.

When Mr Moody retired, the business was taken over by his two sons Ted and Jim who worked long hours managing and extending their operations. In 1961, Ted realised there was a market for nursery supplies and after initially selling sundries from the nursery, a new company, Nursery Supplies (Bourne) Ltd, was formed in 1962, occupying an adjoining site in Exeter Street. The business remained there until January 1999 when it moved to a new out of town location on a 5½-acre site at the corner of the A151 Spalding Road and Meadow Drove with a new building covering 15,000 sq feet and providing 260 full and part time jobs, both here in Bourne and nationwide. This was a major project when it opened, big enough to attract royalty because the Duchess of Gloucester was the guest of honour at the official opening on Tuesday 27th April 1999 when the Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Don Fisher said: "It was a brilliant afternoon, an historic occasion for Nursery Supplies and for the town." His enthusiasm was echoed by company director Adam Moody who said: "This marks the culmination of our relocation process which means that we are now able to expand into the next century in our new premises." 

But it was not to be. Ted Moody died in January 2000 at the age of 70. The business foundered and closed in 2001 and the following year, the warehouse depot complex was put on the market for £1,450,000, one of the biggest asking prices for a commercial development in the Bourne area in recent years.

Meanwhile, the nursery business had also been run down towards the end of the 20th century and the land was sold for various developments that now include Sainsburys supermarket, occupying the former site of Nursery Supplies, while the last of the greenhouses and ancillary buildings were demolished early in 2002 to make way for the Hereward Meadow housing estate.

The run down glasshouse complex at Woodside Nurseries as demolition got underway in February 2002 to make way for a new housing estate.

REVISED JUNE 2005

See also   Watercress days     Sainsburys     Hereward Meadow

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