| BioRegional’s
Local Lavender project in south London is throwing its field open
to the public during the next two weekends. Families and fans of
lavender are invited to pick their own lavender from the community
project sponsored by Yardley London and developed on formerly disused
allotments.
A unique collaboration between
fragrance company Yardley London and environmental organisation
BioRegional’s award-winning Local Lavender project is reviving
the once historic lavender fields of the Carshalton area of London,
which helped companies such as Yardley build an international reputation
in perfumery and bath luxuries.
This year, an ingenious solution
to the need to harvest the ever larger crop of mature flowers has
been found. A small scale “Heritage Harvester” is being
custom built from scrap and recycled materials by an engineering
team from Cranfield University, led by Dr James Brighton, consultant
engineer to Channel 4’s "Scrap-heap Challenge and Junkyard
Wars".
The Heritage Harvester is specially
designed to harvest narrow rows of lavender without damaging the
plants, and demonstrates good re-use of materials from second-hand
agricultural machines, a rotovator and a quad bike. Its first trial
run will be on the last of the four Lavender Open Days, at 2pm on
29th July 2001.
The Heritage Harvester work is
being funded by the National Grid Community 21 Awards and the Heritage
Lottery Fund. This work includes a newly-planted heritage varieties
garden on the lavender field site.
This year is the first time the
Lavender harvest has been open to the public for more than one day,
and is a celebration of the achievements of the project so far:
· Reviving the local heritage
of lavender production in south London, the “lavender capital
of the world” around 1900.
· Prisoners at nearby HM Prison Downview grew on thousands
of local lavender cuttings – the original varieties –
and helped BioRegional staff clear and plant the field, provided
free by London Borough of Sutton.
· Lavender has become part of the local identity, with lavender
Christmas lights, appearances in local plays and parades, and sponsorship
by Yardley London.
The harvested lavender will be
distilled into pure essential oil, which can be used for aromatherapy
or relaxing scents.
Notes
Yardley London were established
in 1770 and are internationally renowned for their range of bath
luxuries and perfumes based on the highest quality floral ingredients.
The National Grid Community 21
Awards, run by the electricity transmission company in partnership
with the Improvement and Development Agency and UK Local Sustainability
Group, reward the best new ideas in sustainable development.
The Heritage Lottery Fund provides
financial support for the protection and enhancement of our heritage,
of local, regional or national importance for the benefit of communities
throughout the UK. So far, 7,190 grants have been awarded with a
combined value of £1.7billion.
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