The Rhubarb Triangle - where is it?

[Si]

Uno Hoo wrote:

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.

That's the farm I meant, Uno!

[Uno Hoo]

Si wrote:

Uno Hoo wrote: 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. That's the farm I meant, Uno!

Sorry, Si. My mistake. For 18th hole I read 19th, so thought you meant the clubhouse

[peterg]

I like rhubarb and even tried growing it in Spain, but it didn't work. I believe it needs cold winters and not too hot summers, but at sea level near the Med, we rarely got subzero weather more than one or two nights together and in summer the weather gets very hot. I have had rhubarb pie in Normandy and have seen Dutch rhubarb here.
Getting back to the Rhubarb Triangle, I seem to remember that on Selby Road in the Garforth area there was a white house (reminder of Le Mans) on a hill and I believe rhubarb was grown around there. Can anybody correct me if I am wrong.

[chameleon]

peterg wrote:

I like rhubarb and even tried growing it in Spain, but it didn't work. I believe it needs cold winters and not too hot summers, but at sea level near the Med, we rarely got subzero weather more than one or two nights together and in summer the weather gets very hot. I have had rhubarb pie in Normandy and have seen Dutch rhubarb here. Getting back to the Rhubarb Triangle, I seem to remember that on Selby Road in the Garforth area there was a white house (reminder of Le Mans) on a hill and I believe rhubarb was grown around there. Can anybody correct me if I am wrong.

Don't remember rhubarb out that way but, you are probably right about growing - common practice is to lift the crowns in late autumn and leave them on the soil surface over winter to let them get well, bitten by the cold!

[uncle mick]

peterg wrote:

I like rhubarb and even tried growing it in Spain, but it didn't work. I believe it needs cold winters and not too hot summers, but at sea level near the Med, we rarely got subzero weather more than one or two nights together and in summer the weather gets very hot. I have had rhubarb pie in Normandy and have seen Dutch rhubarb here. Getting back to the Rhubarb Triangle, I seem to remember that on Selby Road in the Garforth area there was a white house (reminder of Le Mans) on a hill and I believe rhubarb was grown around there. Can anybody correct me if I am wrong.

The house isn't white,but is this it ?
http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=201039_170418&DISPLAY=FULL

[Tarkus]

I lived at Carlton, near Rothwell, in the 1980s. The local grower (Oldroyd) considered Carlton to be at the epicentre of the triangle, and himself to be the King of rhubarb land. I remember my kids coming home with armfuls of tusky on day and, when I asked where they'd taken it from, they said they'd followed the tractor home, and just picked it up from the road as it fell off the trailer!

[peterg]

uncle mick wrote:

peterg wrote: I like rhubarb and even tried growing it in Spain, but it didn't work. I believe it needs cold winters and not too hot summers, but at sea level near the Med, we rarely got subzero weather more than one or two nights together and in summer the weather gets very hot. I have had rhubarb pie in Normandy and have seen Dutch rhubarb here. Getting back to the Rhubarb Triangle, I seem to remember that on Selby Road in the Garforth area there was a white house (reminder of Le Mans) on a hill and I believe rhubarb was grown around there. Can anybody correct me if I am wrong. The house isn't white,but is this it ? http://www.leodis.net/display.aspx?resourceIdentifier=201039_170418&DISPLAY=FULL

It probably is the house I meant and the Leodis note does state that rhubarb was grown there.

[Leeds Hippo]

On the subject of rhubarb ....

Noticed that beside Elland road football ground there used to be one of the biggest rhubarb sheds I've seen (where the speedway track went) - seem to exist around 1900. Anyone know where the larghest shed was

[Trojan]

To answer my own question
http://www.thebestof.co.uk/local/wakefield/business-guide/feature/rhubarb-triangle-brewers-fayre/53902

[Bert]

This was a question on QI last night. The producers must be following Secret Leeds!