Tobacco Close, Winchcombe

Image: © Jaggery Taken: 5 Apr 2015

Viewed across the B4632 Cheltenham Road. I was surprised to learn that tobacco can be grown in the British climate. One online source states that in 1619, a London merchant, John Stratford, bought land in and around Winchcombe and planted tobacco. In the same year, Parliament passed an Act banning tobacco growing in England, just as the first crop in Winchcombe was ready to harvest. Thereafter, though much of the land was turned to growing flax, illegal tobacco growing continued on a substantial scale, including fourteen plantations in Worcestershire. In Winchcombe the parish tithe barn was used to dry the leaves, and houses in North Street stored the cured tobacco. Soldiers were sent to Winchcombe on at least one occasion to destroy the illegal crop. The exact location of the tobacco fields in Winchcombe is now uncertain. The area near Tobacco Close in the south of Winchcombe was formerly known as Tobacco Piece.

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