Sweet scent of success Print E-mail
Written by Helen Gazeley, 2008   
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Surrey was a centre of lavender growing until the First World War, but now efforts are paying off to reintroduce the crop. Helen Gazeley reports

Lorna Maye lives and, literally, breathes lavender. Hardly surprising. On the day of my visit, dried lavender fills her dining room, drums of essential oil sit in the lounge and, on the patio, 2,000 lavender cuttings await transplanting.

Achieving successful commercial lavender production has demanded quite a learning curve from a busy mother whose experience, until three years ago, lay firmly behind a desk. "My husband, Brendan, had a vision," Lorna explains.

Then UK General Manager for the beauty firm Yardley, "he wanted to create a field and visitors' centre where lavender would be used in Yardley products."

Coincidentally, BioRegional, an entrepreneurial organisation, had just established a community lavender project (see box "History of Surrey lavender") nearby in Banstead, and were seeking funding for a commercial plantation. It seemed a perfect partnership, and in 2002 the field was planted.

But when Yardley was sold and its sponsorship ended, BioRegional couldn't keep it on and the lavender's future looked bleak.

Lorna needed no persuasion to step in and Mayfield Lavender was born. It's a decision she's not regretted. "Having been in marketing all my career, I find farming easier. I feel energised when on the field - even the weeding's enjoyable." Which is just as well, because it's hard work. In summer she's often up till 2am and awake again at 6.30am. And what farming is complete without its crises?

"The first year, the distillery sent a big harvester to cut the lavender. The machine broke down and never came back. We only harvested two-thirds of the crop." Then, last year, with 100 sacks of lavender waiting to go for distillation, the forklift truck failed; the trailer bogged down in the mud; the distillery's driver began to run out of time on his tachograph and the heavens opened. "When I think of what we've experienced!" says Lorna. "We could have been on reality TV."

Public enthusiastic

Yet, down moments are few in the face of the public's enthusiasm. "The first year, we opened the gate in July, on the day we started harvesting. Loads of people stopped to buy fresh lavender. So last year, we opened at the beginning of May, and we still couldn't keep up.

We were cutting till we got blisters. We had such an amazing response to our lavender oil that we sold all last year's harvest before the end of the season. People bought three bottles at a time."

Perhaps part of its popularity lies in the pleasure of seeing the revival of a local industry that once supplied lavender to the world. However, in many ways people are claiming the field for themselves.

As Jenny Organ of BioRegional explains, "The field was fly-tipped and causing a problem. Now it's looking wonderful. And it's on the London Loop, so it makes a feature of the area."

The London Loop is an orbital walk around the capital, designed to be tackled in bite-sized pieces. Its route cuts straight across the field. With 180 rows of lavender on either side, in June and July it takes ramblers through a scented sea of purple. And not just ramblers. "We've put in picnic tables," says Lorna. "People spend the day."

Since seeing its response, Lorna has aimed to involve the community as much as possible. A photographic competition proved very popular last year. This year she's invited beekeepers to put hives on the field. "And I'd like to have wildlife walks, to show people what's here. There are so many butterflies."

Organic accreditation

Lorna's justly proud of the abundant fauna, especially as it owes much to her determination to grow organically (she was accredited organic status by the Soil Association in March). "In the field, you must kneel down and look.

There are spiders, beetles, ladybirds." Uncultivated field-margins encourage biodiversity, and she's liaising with Surrey Wildlife Trust with a view to introducing wild orchids.

For Richard Harris, Biodiversity Officer of Sutton Borough Council, Mayfield Lavender is an ideal addition to the area. This summer, he will put up an owl-box in one of the main trees and hopes for a barn owl. ("We'll probably get tawnies," he admits.)

He's also planning a survey of invertebrates (bees, beetles etc.). "It's an open field, away from the road, with not a lot of disturbance. No spraying encourages the invertebrate population, which encourages voles, the owls' main prey."

Gauging the species there will allow him to form an opinion of their contribution to the environment and contribute to an overall picture of London's ecology. "More invertebrates will have a knock-on effect on pollination, bringing more species, and rare ones too." His results will be available online at Greenspace Information for Green London later in the year.

But it's not only Richard who's delighted by the return of lavender. The Borough as a whole celebrated the first commercial harvest in over 70 years by making it the theme of its float in the New Year's Day Parade in London in 2007.

Participants handed out scent strips imbued with Lorna's newly distilled oil. John Phillips, the council's Heritage Officer, is quietly pleased: "One of the nice things about the lavender is its history. With such a lot of farming activity in the area in 1900, the sight of those purple fields from the Downs must have been a spectacle."

Today, standing at the edge of 25 acres of Mayfield Lavender, it is once more.

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