Stockingstone Road cluster

All 3 orchard locations shown on close-ups from an aerial photo from 1929. Under license from: © Historic England. [EPW026487] Wardown Park, Luton, 1929

Today, there appears to be no trace of the orchard and farm, although the houses that were built there after the 1920s typically had fruit trees planted in their back gardens.

More about farmhouse orchards in Types of orchards.

'Orchard House' was the name of a residential property on Stockingstone Road at the beginning of the twentieth century and possibly the years before. Unsurprisingly, its back garden was occupied by an orchard.

It was lived in by two brothers, William and Joseph Herrod-Hempsall, who were renowned in the international beekeeping world. When Joseph was admitted as a fellow of The Entomological Society of London on 20 November 1918, his address was given as 'Orchard House'. By 1922, the OS map names it as 'The Apiary', meaning a place where bees are kept. Aerial photos appear to show both hives and fruit trees behind the house.

Joseph was editor of the Bee Keepers' Record for 38 years. His brother, William, published many books on bees and honey, lectured widely and invented beekeeping equipment. Some people have called their house a beekeeping school. We even found a photo that shows Luton beekeeper William with his tutor William Broughton-Carr.

The property still exists today.

Today it's the Coop Sports and Social Club, but in 1878 it was a sizeable orchard. The size of the land and the neat rows of trees indicate it was planted for commercial purposes. It's possible the farmer at Cowridge End diversified into fruit. 

Only the smaller orchard to the south of Stockingstone Road is mapped on the Tithe Map of 1840. The larger orchard fleetingly appears in 1878, only to be off the map again by 1900.