One weekend a year, a 3-acre private lavender field is open to the public to visit and harvest your own bunch of lavender from the fields.
(c) Carshalton Lavender
At one time, lavender was widely grown across much of south London as a crop, but these days it’s found in just a handful of locations, and in 1996, a 3-acre plot of disused land in Carshalton was planted with Lavandula Intermedia by the local environmental charity BioRegional.
Prisoners on day-release from Downview Prison worked with staff from BioRegional to clear the site and plant the lavender.
Their first community harvest was held in 2001, and it’s been an annual event ever since.
You can either turn up just to visit a number of local buisness stalls and buy lavender produce, or you can pay a bit extra to harvest your own bunch of lavender.
They will have a sample size of a bunch by the entrance so you know roughly how much you should be aiming for, but if you go overweight, they just ask you to pay a bit more on the way out.
Entry only is £1.50, and to harvest some lavender, it’s £5.
Up to 2 children are free.
You can pay on the day, but this year they’re asking people to buy tickets in advance to ensure entry as it can be quite busy at times.
You can buy tickets from here.
The harvest takes place over the weekend of 29th & 30th July, and the lavender field is just off Oaks Way, a short walk from Carshalton Beeches and Sutton stations.
The lavender growing project is run solely by volunteers, and proceeds from this harvest event keep the field running from year to year.
I live round the corner, and I wouldn’t say it’s a short walk from Sutton station – it’s about a mile and a half. Carshalton station is slightly nearer than that, but Carshalton Beeches is by far the closest.