Rhubarb

Find out why Wakefield is always rooting for rhubarb! Explore the history of the Rhubarb Triangle with your pupils in this resource. It celebrates the heritage of Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb and the people who grow it.

Browse a selection of highlights, and download our full resource packs for more:

These resources are for KS2 upwards.

You can also enjoy making our tasty rhubarb crumble recipe!

Rhubarb: a potted history

The Rhubarb Triangle is the land between Wakefield, Leeds and Morley, famous for growing Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb.

From Ancient China, rhubarb root was powdered as a medicine. The culinary rhubarb we use today wasn’t introduced into Britain until the 1800s.

The rhubarb industry boomed from the 1880s. Low-roofed forcing sheds built across the Rhubarb Triangle supplied the markets in London. Products then went on to Europe. Special trains piled high with rhubarb ran overnight between January and March.

In 2010 Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb gained European protection. This gives it the same status as Parma Ham!

Two men crouched over picking rhubarb stalks out of the ground, with another man stood up and touching the roof to demonstrate how low it is

Picking forced rhubarb in East Ardsley (1940s)

Thanks to good soil mixed with a plentiful supply of ashes, horse manure and textile waste, and the right amount of rain, Wakefield specialises in ‘forced’ rhubarb.

This is a technique used to grow it out of season.

After a heavy frost, the roots are taken into warm dark sheds lit with candles.

These conditions encourage the stalks to grow very quickly.

Three women looking at the camera, packing rhubarb stalks into boxes in a workshop

Packing forced rhubarb (1940s)

The popularity of forced rhubarb declined in Britain during the Second World War.

Sugar was rationed. Many people disliked the taste of unsweetened rhubarb, which can be very tart.

With low public demand, farms that had opened in the early 1900s were forced to close.

However, long-standing family-run farms continued their production. Truck-loads of rhubarb were still being sent across the country to meet global demand.

A smiling young man in a suit and flat cap stood next to a wagon piled high with rhubarb - even higher than he is tall!

Jack Pierce with a load of rhubarb ready for market (1940s)

Rhubarb was a common back garden plant that many would grow to sell on market days.

The forced rhubarb process is said to have been accidentally discovered in Chelsea, when a plant pot fell over a garden rhubarb plant!

This was soon adopted across Yorkshire with the use of the low roofed forcing sheds we see today.

A glass bottle, pointed at the base and with a stopper in the top, discoloured with time

Rhubarb wine bottle (1886)

During the 1880s botanically brewed drinks, carbonated water and homemade wines like rhubarb wine were popular medicinal remedies.

This wine is kept in an E.P. Shaw bottle from their fizzy drinks factory on the Market Place, Wakefield.

Rhubarb box (2012)

This box was made to store and pack fresh rhubarb by Brandy Carr Nurseries, near Wakefield.

A small shovel-like tool with a shallow half-moon tool end and wooden handle

Rhubarb splitting tool (2009)

The process of moving the roots to the sheds is delicate and labour intensive. A two-year-old forcing root can weigh up to 50kg, requiring two men to lift it.

In the Rhubarb Triangle a root is regarded as being at its best for forcing at two years old.

This tool was used to split rhubarb to dig it out of the ground at Brandy Carr Nurseries.