List of historic Market Gardens and Nurseries in Wales

In this piece I sketched as much of the story of Welsh market gardening as I think can currently be put together. It struck me that one important, missing resource is a list of known, historic market gardens or nurseries in Wales so that we can start, hopefully, filling in the gaps. So do you know or suspect there used to be a market garden or nursery in your town or area? Please comment below or get in touch here so we can expand the list.

NB. The reason to lump market gardens and nurseries together is that often the same business will be involved both in raising plants for sale and in growing produce – even if they usually have a clear emphasis either side or the other,

List of historic Welsh Market Gardens and Nurseries

• Early’s Garden, Cowbridge. Up and running by 1738. Mentioned in Historic Gardens of the Vale of Glamorgan.
• Vickers nursery, Holywell. In operation in 1795. Known for cultivating the Cambrian Plum. Mentioned in Early Welsh Nursery Gardeners.
• Hindes Nursery, Felindre. Established between cc.1800 and 1808; sold 1852. Nursery of 18 acres that grew to 74 acres, sold trees and woody plants including a wide range of fruit trees and graft wood.  Described in Walter Davies’ General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of South Wales, 1815.
• James Evans’ Nursery, Felindre. 8 acres; over the fence from Hindes and in operation by 1815. Mentioned by Davies, 1815.
• Charles Price’s Nursery, Llechryd. Contemporaneous with the above Teifi valley operations. Mentioned in Rooted in History.
• Llandaff. Flourishing market gardens supplying valleys towns, Cardiff and even Bristol. Mentioned by Walter Davies, 1815.
• Bodorgan. Reference in Gardeners’ Chronicle to nursery there in 1850 and 1892.
• Murton Farm, Gower. Market Garden, established 1864 and still going, in area formerly known as the ‘Garden of Swansea’.
• Treseders’ Nursery, Pwll-coch, Cardiff. Established by 1868.
• Llysonnen Market Nursery, Carms. Near Meidrim. Described in Gardeners’ Chronicle in 1895 as a ‘market nursery’ growing amongst other things roses, chrysanthemums, peaches and tomatoes, with two tons of tomatoes sent off weekly in midsummer. It employed 35 gardeners.
• A.J. Williams, Bee Hive Nursery Llangefni. Sold seed potatoes, tomato and cucumber plants, bedding plants and seed. Advert in Welsh Coast Pioneer, March 1903
• Aberystwyth, ‘market gardening is an old industry in and around Aberystwyth’, 4^th Jan 1900. Where were these gardens?

References

David, P., Rooted in History,

Lloyd, T., “Early Welsh Nursery Gardeners”, Bulletin of the Welsh Historic Gardens Trust, Autumn 2000

Davies, W., General View of the Agriculture and Domestic Economy of South Wales, 1815.