Just a stones throw from London lies one of Britain's best kept cosmetic secrets - Mayfield Lavender.
Brendan Maye had convinced cosmetics firm Wella UK - for whom he was working as managing director of their fine fragrance division - that for the consumer to take English lavender seriously it had to be grown there.
Wella were initially reluctant but eventually agreed and, in 2002, the Mayfield site was planted with 70,000 Folgate lavender plugs (read the full history).
When Wella was sold to Proctor and Gamble, Brendan Maye decided to take the project on as a personal investment and bought the business.
On the 26th July, Brendan and Lorna Maye started harvesting their English lavender crop after which, the flowers will either be crushed to extract the valuable oil or dried to be used in other products.
I bet that when most people think of Lavender production they imagine Provence in the South of France, high temperatures and dry dusty soil.
The reality is that lavender has been grown successfully on English soil for centuries. The present Mayfield site is a revival of English lavender growing first started in the 18th century.
The lavender fields, sandwiched between the A2022 Croydon Lane and the B278 Carshalton Road, are open to the public from 10.am - 7pm until the end of July - get directions from Google map.
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