Primroses are one of Devon's signature flowers and are now at their best. The lanes around Roundball are full of these flowers and are a sign that at last winter is over. There was a time that they were not just an indicator of spring, but also an opportunity to make some pocket money.
As a child Roundball Warden together with his younger sister, picked bunches of these flowers, tied them up with cotton and went around to neighbours selling them for cash.
Neighbours were not the only customers for primroses in Devon. Devon Valley Paper Mills at Hele near Cullompton, sent primroses to the buyers of their paper to give them 'a breath of Devon air'. Although I never sold mine to the paper mill, I know some who made a fair bit of spare cash from the operation.
The practice spread to other paper mills and in the mid 1960s the venture received bad publicity in the local press from those who were concerned that the Devon lanes were being stripped of blooms. To address these concerns, Plymouth Polytechnic was invited to look into the practice. Their conclusion was that the level of picking was not a serious threat to a plant that lives for about 15 to 25 years. However over the subsequent years the general attitude of the public towards picking wild flowers hardened, and in 1968 a law was introduced to make the picking of wild flowers for commercial gain a criminal offence.
Roundball Warden now has to appreciate primroses in all their natural beauty rather than calculating how much pocket money he could make from a hedge full.
The abundance of primroses is indeed one of the joys of living in Devon. I was very interested by your comment on the practice of selling primroses to the paper mill at Hele as I live not far from there. But like you I will enjoy the flowers in the hedgerows rather than using them to supplement the income from my day job!
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