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OF WINE AND WILD FLOWERS
Nancy Wheeler |
Mrs Nancy Wheeler moved to Helmdon from Wiltshire in 1954. She was
always interested in nature and wild flowers and learnt about them
at school, one year winning the competition for finding the most wild
flowers. Her interest continued after leaving school and she says
she frequently found herself left behind on walks with friends or
relatives because she had become engrossed in identifying a wild flower,
while the others wandered on. Her knowledge is now extensive.
She used to make (and mostly gave away) many types of wine from nature's
harvest, enjoying experimenting. Those she has made are parsnip, marigold,
elderflower, crab apple, hawthorn flower, gooseberry, rhubarb, lemon,
clover ("lovely"), rose petal, parsley ("like champagne"), ginger,
potato, wheat and also sloe vodka - better than sloe gin as it does
not give you a headache.
Bee Orchid
(Ophrys opifera) |
Dog Rose
(Rosa canina) |
Mrs Wheeler's close acquaintance with the wild
plants of the old Great Central Line bank began when she and Miss
Nichols started taking Miss Nichols's dog for walks there. They
did not always find the same ones every year and different sorts
grew according to the soil. Near Peter's Bridge the ground is marshy,
but at the other end, near the old station, it is better drained.
From memory, plants she found are:
Birdsfoot trefoil, hop trefoil, foxgloves, yellow rattle, hay rattle,
toadflax, dog violets, pink, white and blue, shepherd's purse, horseshoe
vetch, kidney vetch, bitter vetch, figwort, stitchwort, milkwort,
woody and deadly nightshade, St John's wort, herb bane, bugloss,
buttercup, cowslip, dandelion, moon daisies, quaking grass, strawberries,
heather, greater knapweed, yarrow, chicory, dog rose, gelder rose,
crab apple, ragged robin, coltsfoot, creeping jenny, scabious, borage,
woad hawthorn (bread and cheese), cranesbill, scarlet pimpernel,
yellow pimpernel, tansy, fool's parsley, mayweed, willow-herb, old
man's beard, cuckoo flower, wild carrot, charlock, briony, hedge
garlic (Jack-by-the-hedge), horehound, feverfew, cinquefoil, ox-tongue,
poppy, yellow Welsh poppy, wild mustard, clover (lots of four-leaved
ones), silverweed, honeysuckle, teasels, birdseye, many sorts of
thistle, catsear, lamb's lettuce (edible), centaury, goatsbeard
(Jack-go-to-bed-at-noon) self-heal several sorts of speedwell wood-sorrel,
plantain, agrimony, dewberry, wild mint in the boggy parts, blackberry,
stinging nettle, red nettle, white dead-nettle, herb robert (pink),
herb bennet (yellow), nipplewort, rosebay, willow-herb, comfrey.
Most notably, she found many orchids, including bee orchid, green-winged
orchid, and the early purple orchids which came first, beyond Peter's
Bridge.
Mrs Wheeler has not been walking on the line bank for quite a while.
It would be an interesting exercise to check which of these flowers
are still growing there.
As told to Judy Cairns.
Taken from Aspects of Helmdon No 3
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