Fruit-picking

In the years 1930s to the 1950s Little Plumstead was a great fruit-growing area. Ray Stanford was the owner of orchards bordered by Salhouse Road and Sandy Lane (now Sandhole Lane) and which stretched almost to Crowes Loke. The fields owned by Gerald Wiley, along the road from Sandy Lane corner, were mostly blackcurrant bushes. There were more apple and plum trees between the Salhouse Road and Hospital Road – on School Lane corner. (I well remember my father, the local policeman, from time to time catching the local boys scrumping.) During the summer local women – and children during the school holidays and after school – would pick the fruit and would get 1s. 9d. for a full basket of blackcurrants (less than 10p in today’s money). The farmhand in charge always inspected the baskets to make sure noone had put stones in the bottom to add to the weight – and no leaves were allowed! On the left of the road from the school towards Blofield were the strawberry fields, but no children were allowed to pick these.