Wakefield Museums and Castles

Bright pink stalks of forced rhubarb

Rhubarb

Wakefield is famous for growing forced rhubarb. Every year the popular Rhubarb Festival is held in the city centre. Wakefield is one of three points on the world-famous ‘Rhubarb Triangle’.

The forced rhubarb industry boomed from the 1880s. Low roofed forcing sheds were built across the Rhubarb Triangle. These supplied the markets in London, and on to Europe. Special trains packed with rhubarb ran overnight between January and March. The trains were called the 'Rhubarb Express'.

Forced rhubarb is still an important and iconic industry in Wakefield today.

Find out more about rhubarb and its many uses throughout history.

Teachers: We've also got a series of rhubarb teaching resources and bookable Primary School workshops about rhubarb available.

Find out more

Three bunches of rhubarb making a triangle shape with a question mark in the middle

Where is the 'Rhubarb Triangle'?

Where exactly is the 'rhubarb triangle'? And is it even a triangle?
A person crouched over picking rhubarb stalks out of the ground inside a low roofed rhubarb shed

Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb!

Why is Wakefield associated with rhubarb? Find answers to the most common questions here!
A handwritten note on a well-worn piece of paper listing the ingredients in a homemade cure for cholera, which includes powdered rhubarb

Cure for cholera, 1800s

Rhubarb has been used in medicine for thousands of years. Cholera was one of the many common conditions.
A small glass bottle, discoloured by the previous rhubarb contents. It is pointed at the base and has a cork stopper

Rhubarb wine, 1886

Rhubarb has been a popular ingredient in food and drink for centuries. This bottle still contains some homemade rhubarb wine!
A black and white photo of an elderly man with a 'weather beaten' face, bushy grey eyebrows and hat

Saville Helm Ramsden, 1970s

Saville Ramsden ran his family’s nursery business from 1910. He introduced rhubarb and became a local specialist.
A wooden handled tool with metal end and half-moon shaped tool end

Rhubarb splitting tool, 2008

Find out about the forced rhubarb industry in Wakefield. It started in the 1800s. It is still internationally important today.
A shiny mottled brown glazed double handed tyg cup with rhubarb stalk design on front

Cistercian ware style cup, Naomi Aderonke, 2024

Local artist Naomi Aderonke was inspired to create a series of Cistercian ware cups using historic techniques.

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