SecretLeeds - History, culture and architecture in Leeds

Trojan wrote:-The "Rhubarb Triangle" is the area where forced rhubarb is grown in long low sheds, does this sound familiar for Calverley?If you click on the link there's a map. I don't know, Trojan. There was enough space for forcing sheds, but whether there were ever any at this site is outside my memory. But if not, what would have been the point of growing a large acreage of the plants outdoors? I'm not aiming that question at you for an answer, but posing it as an issue raised by the discussion to date.What I do remember from childhood is almost every household with a garden grew rhubarb. Ours had an old earthenware chimney pot for forcing. Even now, both my father and my brother-in-law produce fresh crops each year without doing anything to propagate - the stuff, like Topsy, just grows! And it's good!     

We used to call rhubarb (tusky) when we were kids, anyone else heard it referred to as this?

Johnny39 wrote: We used to call rhubarb (tusky) when we were kids, anyone else heard it referred to as this? Hi Johnny39 Have a look on page one of this thread tusky is on there.

I remember back in the 50s and 60s rhubarb being grown on the farm between the Sugarwell Estate and Buslinthorpe Lane. There were fields of rhubard growing outside and forcing sheds in the middle of the fields. The farmer/farm worker used to live on the Miles Hill estate and I can remember seeing him occasionally with his cart/plough(?) horses.

tilly wrote: Johnny39 wrote: We used to call rhubarb (tusky) when we were kids, anyone else heard it referred to as this? Hi Johnny39 Have a look on page one of this thread tusky is on there. Thanks TillyHave given myself 100 lines:-"I must pay attention at all times or run the risk of being called a stupid dolt"Now back to pages 1-2

My (maternal) Grandfather used to work in the Rhubarb shed in Stanley.The remains of some of them still stand (or did in 2004), & there were outdoor varieties growing the fields tooThey were located just off Aberford Road (A642), accessable off Bottomboat Road, & ran parallell to the River Calder, before the old Aire & Calder Navigation offices/boatyard (NOT the one at Stanley Ferry - these are much older!)Here's the sign at Carlton, we used to live just 'on the cusp' of Lee Moor, so not too far away really (we were on Canal Lane for 7 years)Sorry, not sure how to 'img' the links properlyhttp://travel.webshots.com/photo/1112954601047309372lzleEzAnd the fields/shedhttp://travel.webshots.com/photo/1140984537047309372qYlULJhttp://travel.webshots.com/photo/1140984556047309372oDHQkW Bramley4woods wrote: Why spice for sweets?The first sweets were dried fruits and nuts flavoured with spices.OTOH, All this may be completely wrong. I'm surprised that the term 'Spanish' for Licquorice wasn't included, as isn't that a nod towards its place of origin?Also, on the Rhubarb 'trail'Didn't Jack Nicolson in 'Batman' (Tim Burtons first 're-imagining') tell Bruce Wayne not to"Rub Another Mans Rhubarb!"What an unusual phrase?!!?

Uno Hoo wrote: Coming late into this thread, I recall rhubarb being grown commercially in Calverley, on what is now Moorfield(?) Farm - I only drive past it every other day, so don't expect me to know its name - which is on the left as you leave Calverley towards Pudsey Lane Ends after you've come up the steepest bit of Woodhall Road out of the village. It now seems to be some sort of equine establishment, but for years after its rhubarb heyday the stuff grew wild. Does this extend the Rhubarb Triangle further north-west? For a minute there I was reminded of the film "North By North West" and had a crazy vision of Cary Grant dodging a crop-dusting plane amidst giant rhubarb plants! Do you mean the farm opposite Woodhall Hills Golf Club's 18th hole, Uno? On the top of the hill? I remember there was rhubarb grown there. Strange you should mention the crop-duster plane, because ISTR a light aircraft made an emergency landing in that field in the 70s!

Si wrote: Uno Hoo wrote: Coming late into this thread, I recall rhubarb being grown commercially in Calverley, on what is now Moorfield(?) Farm - I only drive past it every other day, so don't expect me to know its name - which is on the left as you leave Calverley towards Pudsey Lane Ends after you've come up the steepest bit of Woodhall Road out of the village. It now seems to be some sort of equine establishment, but for years after its rhubarb heyday the stuff grew wild. Does this extend the Rhubarb Triangle further north-west? For a minute there I was reminded of the film "North By North West" and had a crazy vision of Cary Grant dodging a crop-dusting plane amidst giant rhubarb plants! Do you mean the farm opposite Woodhall Hills Golf Club's 18th hole, Uno? On the top of the hill? I remember there was rhubarb grown there. Strange you should mention the crop-duster plane, because ISTR a light aircraft made an emergency landing in that field in the 70s! No, Si. That farm used to be Tom Hill, Potato Merchants. I mean the one that stands well back on the left with a long track leaving Woodhall Road at a right-angle, with the golf fairways on the right. About 400 yards before the golf club entrance. Since the rhubarb days it was home to a fleet of road tankers for some years.I'm surprised and interested to read your comments about the plane landing up there. I'd never heard about that.

Bramley4woods wrote: Also, on the Rhubarb 'trail'Didn't Jack Nicolson in 'Batman' (Tim Burtons first 're-imagining') tell Bruce Wayne not to"Rub Another Mans Rhubarb!"What an unusual phrase?!!? I have to admit to knowing a risque rhyme about rhubarb which I won't relate on this site. It might just be that the Batman phrase related to something similar. I'm not into Batman, so don't know if the scripts include a bit of innuendo    

Uno Hoo wrote: Bramley4woods wrote: Also, on the Rhubarb 'trail'Didn't Jack Nicolson in 'Batman' (Tim Burtons first 're-imagining') tell Bruce Wayne not to"Rub Another Mans Rhubarb!"What an unusual phrase?!!? I have to admit to knowing a risque rhyme about rhubarb which I won't relate on this site. It might just be that the Batman phrase related to something similar. I'm not into Batman, so don't know if the scripts include a bit of innuendo     Long and thin,Covered in skin,Red in parts,Goes in tarts,Rhubarb!