Early Accommodation For Leverington's Fruit Pickers

It was after World War 1 that strawberry growing became important around the Wisbech area and as strawberry prices continued to rise so more and more strawberries were planted. Eventually, local labour could not cope with the picking so hundreds of poor people from London's East End were encouraged to come to the area for a 'holiday' and earn money as well. They came in special trains to Wisbech's Midland and Great Northern Station (yes, we had two stations in those days) and were given lifts to the farms in farm lorries with sides fixed on the and planks put across for seats. To them it was a real adventure. The farmers had to provide accommodation for these people and very poor it often was. The locals called them ' bunks' and they were usually a number of small cubicles on each side of a narrow corridor. There were straw mattresses and chaff pillows. Some farmers provided grey blankets. The cooking was done in a communal cookhouse. Some farmers provided better accommodation depending on the number of pickers they hired. They found the work hard and as they had no experience of being exposed to the sun in open fields, many suffered acute sunburn and often sunstroke. In the evening there was nothing to do only get drunk and often fighting broke out! After a few years, attempts were made to improve the accommodation and conditions in which these people lived and worked and to cater for their leisure hours (other than drink in the Six Ringers). A group of undergraduates came from Cambridge and pitched their tents at the back of the Old Rectory later called The Chapter House. The biggest concentration of pickers worked for Hickmans and lived in 'bunks' in Sutton Road and spent most of their time there. These students set up a nursery for the babies and toddlers, cared for those with sunburn, sickness, cuts and bruises and organised games for the children who were not interested in picking the fruit. In the evenings they organised sports, concerts and sing-songs round the campfire. As time went on, a certain standard of sanitation, cleanliness and accommodation was insisted upon and conditions improved considerably. In the middle of the century, students who came to Leverington to pick fruit lived in permanent camps ie on the Roman Bank and Sutton Road. Today, there are not so many strawberries grown in the area and the camps have disappeared but many farmers rely on Eastern European workers to help harvest their crops. These workers mostly live in rented accommodation in Wisbech and are taken to the fields each morning by local gangmasters. How things have changed!