"Feeding London" coffee morning at Squire's
"Feeding London" coffee morning at Squire's
Colin Squire, Chairman of Squire's Garden Centres, kindly hosted a coffee morning to celebrate the "Feeding London" exhibition currently on show at the Twickenham branch. Honoured guests included Tania Mathias, MP for Twickenham; Cllr Jean Loveland, Deputy Mayor of Richmond-upon-Thames; and members of several families with strong market gardening connections, including the Poupart family, a name most famous for jam.
When David Squire founded the company in 1935 the main activities were landscaping small domestic gardens. During the 1939/45 war, all landscape activities ceased and the nurseries were turned over to vegetable production. The Twickenham garden centre was built in 1964 on the site of Blackmore Farm, which had been run by the Poupart family in the early 1900's.
Jam Yesterday, Jam Tomorrow events always bring up fresh aspects of local history. The gentleman who serves as chauffeur to the Mayor was sharing memories about his family's poultry farm on the site that later became Butts Farm - now Butts Farm housing estate.
Special thanks to Lisa Lopez and staff at Squire's for organising the coffee morning and to David Lawrie, historian and volunteer, for providing fact-sheets, information and his beautifully crafted model of a market garden (pics below), loosely based on Homewood Nursery Hampton.
See photo album on flickr
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Cllr Jean Loveland, Members of the Poupart family Colin Squire Tania Mathias, MP John Anderson, |
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| Appreciating the exhibition panels.. | |
| ..and the books and leaflets... | |
| ... and biscuits and coffee. | |
| Poupart, a name famous for jam. The coffee morning was held on ground once farmed by the Poupart family in the early 1900's. |
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David Lawrie's model of a market garden (left) |
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| Market garden transport | |
| Glasshouses in David Lawrie's model | |
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Third Cross Road, site of Poupart's jam factory. En route from the coffee morning. |
