SMALL CLUMPS of dark green vegetation can be found growing along the shallow reaches of the Bourne Eau between its source at St Peter's Pool and Baldock's Mill, a reminder of an industry that once thrived there. 

A continuing supply of good quality water is needed to grow watercress and this is something that Bourne has had in abundance for thousands of years. It was therefore inevitable that someone would begin such a venture and in the late 19th century, Edwin Nathaniel Moody decided to give it a try.   

He was a nurseryman who established the town's first watercress beds in 1896 on land to the south of St Peter’s Pool that he rented from the Burghley Estate Trust and soon he was producing so much cress that wholesale supplies were being despatched by rail from Bourne station to the markets in London and Leicester as well as being sold retail at his shop. 

Watercress is a salad vegetable that was used as a food and medicine before written records began. Papyri dating from 2000 BC list the medicinal uses of foliage greens such as this and Hippocrates recognised it as a healing plant. The Romans also rated it as a "brain food" and the Greek general Xenophon fed his troops on it. Irish monks ate only bread and watercress for months on end, referring to it as "pure food for wise men".

The ancients knew watercress and other greens were both food and medicine and modern research has proved them right because a small bag of washed watercress contains about three quarters of the recommended daily intake of vitamins A and C as well as other valuable properties.

The venture was successful and by 1911, a borehole had been sunk to boost water supplies to the beds and production was at its peak. A report on the cultivation of watercress in Bourne described the industry as being unique to South Lincolnshire and added: 

"The beds are all neatly laid out and highly productive. They are fed by two springs giving thousands of gallons of water daily and are superintended practically during the whole year. Cress required for cutting for marketable purposes is usually planted in August and during the winter months, plants need a good deal of attention, frost playing havoc with them if not properly seen to especially in May when the cress is ready for cutting. The amount of cress sold retail is small, practically the whole of it being sent direct to markets in London and elsewhere. When cutting, about 70 hampers are despatched each week, a total of three tons, which is quite remarkable for such a small and little known industry."

But growing and harvesting was hard work and we have an account of this from the late John Stennett (1938-2004) who left Bourne Grammar School at the age of 16 and went to work at the water cress beds for two years. "We worked regular hours for most of the time, from 7.30 am until 4.30 pm”, he said, “but during the harvesting season, we were always asked to work overtime, perhaps two hours on some good production days.

"Throughout the year, we had to grow the watercress plants, fertilise them and use large wooden rakes to bash them, a tried and tested system of splitting them and forcing them to multiply and so increase production. We spent most of our time outdoors, apart from short breaks in the shed, wearing rubber waders and standing on wooden planks that stretched over the plants across the width of each bed. The depth of water was about 18 inches.

"Cress was cut using long bladed knives and collected into bunches gauged by using the thumb and forefinger and then secured with rubber bands. We used to hold four bunches in the gaps between our fingers and thumb in either hand and then chop off the straggly stems at the end with a downward movement of the knife near the knuckle joints. This operation was always carried out near the flowing water tanks inside the shed and we wore rubber aprons and long wellies as a protection. It was also a very delicate and sometimes dangerous task and I remember cutting one finger very badly. After that, I had learned my lesson and was more careful in the future.

"When gathered, the cress was transported into a cleaning and preparing shed with flat wooden wheelbarrows. We often took some home for tea which was a very welcome meal because it was supposed to contain a lot of iron and was very good for you and sometimes we would have some in our lunchtime sandwiches. I remember that in winter, we used to tie hessian sacks around our waists to help keep out the cold winds when breaking ice on the water beds. It was very hard work, but happy and healthy times."

The cress beds, which covered three and a half acres, have now disappeared. They were managed by Mr Moody until he retired in 1955 when the business was taken over by Spalding Urban District Council which became responsible for growing and marketing the cress under the trading name of the Hereward Watercress Company Limited. Lettuce and cauliflowers were also grown on the site in season for the main markets in the area and the business produced a profit of around £1,000 a year for the authority.

In September 1969, the beds were bought from the Burghley Estate Trust by South Lincolnshire Water Board which continued to run them until April 1974 when they were closed down and filled in and the area is now a riverside meadow owned by Bourne United Charities. Further cress beds that had been established by Mr Moody at the rear of Harrington Street (now Baldwin Grove) and at Kate's Bridge on the former site of Waterside Nurseries, were also closed down.

Ironically, their closure may have been premature because watercress is enjoying a revival today and small bunches now fetch high prices in supermarkets and delicatessens while dieticians praise its properties as a health giving food and a rich source of vitamins and nutrients.