Farming and rural economy Gallery

Sugar beet processing JLP01_08_082654

WISSINGTON SUGAR FACTORY, COLLEGE ROAD, METHWOLD, KING'S LYNN AND WEST NORFOLK. Sugar beet in the polar beet silo at Wissington Sugar Factory, showing the conveyor bridge, shuttle convey and water jet system.
A sugar factory was first built at Wissington in 1925. Work began on the construction of a new refinery, five silos, and an extension to the existing factory in March 1968 for the British Sugar Corporation. The project also involved the realignment of railway sidings and was spread over three and a half years. Work was programmed to align with the sugar beet campaign: between September and February each year the focus of construction work shifted from the factory to the silos and other outer works, allowing the factory to open for the unloading and processing of sugar beet. At the time of its construction, the polar beet silo at Wissington was the only one of its kind in England. Beet was unloaded from lorries and entered the silo via the conveyor bridge, and was then distributed by the shuttle conveyor. The base of the silo formed concentric valleys with flumes leading to catchment troughs which carried beet to the factory

© Historic England Archive. John Laing Photographic Collection

Woad production, Algarkirk, Lincolnshire NMR02_01_00009

Algarkirk, Lincolnshire. A group of man and women cropping woad and collecting it in large wicker baskets. The earliest woad production in Britain dates from the Iron Age. By the 19th century, cheap production and imports of blue dye from indigo plants in Asia led to the woad industry's decline in Britain. The last commercial woad production in Britain was recorded in 1932 in Lincolnshire. Lantern Slide Collection, undated

© Historic England Archive

West Kennet 29570_019

West Kennet Long Barrow, Avebury, Wiltshire. The neolithic burial mound surrounded by a field of yellow flowering crops. Aerial photograph taken in April 2015

© Historic England

Aerial, Archaeology, Barrow, Burial, Earthwork, Neolithic, Prehistoric, Stone Age, World Heritage Site, Yellow