E. Oldroyd & Sons Ltd, are producers and packers of high-quality Yorkshire forced rhubarb and fruit.
The family has 5 generations of experience in Yorkshire forced rhubarb production and is
regarded as leaders in their field, being highly skilled in the production of this highly specialist crop, which is part of the local heritage. Oldroyd’s farm first became a tourist attraction in 1997, initially designed for group bookings. They became so popular that eventually a whole Festival was based around the tours so that individuals and families can also see the forced rhubarb growing in the dark being harvested by candlelight, and learn the incredible history associated with this plant, and the health benefits forced rhubarb and field rhubarb can bring to us all.

 Visits can be arranged throughout the season January to March and at Wakefield’s Rhubarb Festival to experience this popular award-winning tour,

The company has a high media profile, being one of the country’s largest producers of Yorkshire forced rhubarb as well as field rhubarb. Many celebrity chefs have made visits to the Oldroyd’ s due to the resurgence in popularity of this traditional crop. Janet Oldroyd Hulme has become affectionally known by the media as the ‘High Priestess of Rhubarb’ and the company is listed as a Rick Stein Food Hero Producer.

Rhubarb in a field
Forced Rhubarb
Rhubarb Janet Oldroyd
Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb

Oldroyd’s Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb Triangle Experience

Tours will hopefully commence January 2025, bookings taken in November 2024 for season 2025

Although the whole visit takes place indoors, this is a working farm, and warm outdoor clothing and sturdy foot-ware are recommended.
Experience the amazing secret world of the rhubarb triangle! It’s time for you to see what all the fuss is about.
The unbelievable sight of rhubarb growing INDOORS in the dark, out of season, using only the plants’ natural requirements for growth. Listen – you might just hear it growing!

Did you know that this plant produced the most wondrous drug of the time since 2700 BC?
LEARN THE BENEFITS THAT EATING RHUBARB CAN GIVE TO YOU NOW!

Is the massive interest in rhubarb due to simply another food fashion trend?
Have you heard about these extremely popular tours of the forcing sheds, and always wanted to come? Have you tried in the past and we were always fully booked?
Visit this full-working farm, run by a family who has 5 generations of experience.

TRADITIONALLY GROWN YORKSHIRE INDOOR RHUBARB – A National Treasure, The pride of Great Britain.
THIS COULD BE YOUR GROUP’S MOST INTERESTING VISIT OF THE YEAR, VISITS BY PRE-BOOKED.

Appointment Only:

The visit starts in our lecture room, where you will be seated for approximately 1 hour

whilst we discuss the ancient history of rhubarb, how, and why it was used as a medicine. You will be taken back in time to 2700BC to trace rhubarb’s interesting ancient history. We explain how the forcing process was discovered and how we came to eat rhubarb.

The benefits of eating rhubarb have for the body today. You will then enter “The Secret World of the Rhubarb Triangle” and view a crop growing in the dark sheds. We discuss today’s growing techniques and explain how the process works. Whilst you are in the sheds take the opportunity to stand quietly and listen to catch the sound of rhubarb growing.

You will be stood in the shed for approx. 30 minutes. A limited number of chairs can be taken in for any infirm visitors who cannot stand for long periods. The sheds are also accessible for limited wheelchair needs

You may just be spellbound by the sight and stare speechless at the spectacle before you like so many visitors do, who then return year after year for just one more look and listen once more to the huge amount of information there is to learn.

Shopping:

At the end of the tour, you will have the opportunity to purchase fresh forced Yorkshire rhubarb, from small amounts to full boxes all at low farm prices so it’s your chance to stock up your freezer. Our award-winning strains of roots will be available to enable you to grow your own high-quality rhubarb at home, also preserves made from our own forced rhubarb, plus any other products we have available at the time.

Your visit will take around 1 and 3/4 – 2 hours.

Coaches can pull right into the farmyard area to allow visitors to disembark should it be raining.

Please note:

We take bookings for numbers between 1-80 persons per visit, groups are usually 30 plus in number, but we can take less and add you on to another group. 

Bookings are classified as either:
Individuals, families, or groups under 30 in number. Charge per person £7.50

or

GROUPS OF 30 – 80 persons

We take bookings for numbers between 1 – 90 persons per visit If you have 30 plus in your group you can select, if possible, a date and time for your visit. If you have less than 80 persons, we can open the visit up to others to fill the time slot.
Where payment is made as a single payment plus deposit you will receive the discounted rate of £7 per person.

Group Tour Booking Procedure:

Once you know the date you require, telephone 0113-2822245 to provisionally reserve your date. Once you know you have sufficient group members send a non-returnable £50 deposit which will secure that date for you and confirm your booking. You will then be sent directions to the farm at Lofthouse Wakefield, (the center of our forcing operation) which is halfway between Leeds and Wakefield close to the M62 and M1.

An invoice will be issued upon request for accounting purposes should you require one. Payment by bank transfer is preferred, details are available upon request.
We look forward to seeing you. It will be an experience you will never forget.

Wherever possible all correspondence will be made by e-mail. We will e-mail maps; tickets are not required. Your booking reference will be required for admission. Email visits@eoldroyd.co.uk

Picked Forced Rhubarb
selecting indoor rhubarb

Public Tours

Individuals, families & Small Groups (under 30) Booking Procedure:

You can book a visit outside of the Festival by joining another tour where their numbers are below 80 (a full tour). Bookings and payment can be now done online to ensure you book the date and time you want.
You will receive your confirmation and directions via email.

Individuals and family groups can also book for festival dates or at other times as listed in the availability.
Tours can be arranged throughout the season just look at our availability for a suitable date, cannot see a date suitable for your small group then contact us to discuss.

Bookings/Information. Telephone 0113-282 2245
PUBLIC TOURS CAN BE ARRANGED FROM JANUARY – MARCH.
PLACES ARE LIMITED, SO RESERVE A DATE NOW!

TOUR PRICES
ADULTS £7.50
CHILDREN 5 – 13yrs £5.00
SORRY NO CHILDREN UNDER 5
All prices include V.A.T.

Group Tours

Groups of 30 and over

Bookings and payment can be now done online to ensure you book the days you want, you will receive your confirmation and tickets via email. You can still book by telephone or via post but payment must be made in full TWO weeks prior to your tour. Payment can be made by cheque or bank transfer only ( details are given upon request).

Do you have a group of 30 – 80 persons who wish to reserve a date for a private visit? A deposit of £50 will reserve your group date. Groups less than 30 must check availability.

The visit starts at our reception you will be served with complimentary Tea / Coffee and Biscuits on arrival then a talk by Janet Oldroyd Hulme known as The High Priestess of Rhubarb.

Experience the amazing secret world of the rhubarb triangle! It’s time for you to see what all the fuss is about.

The unbelievable sight of rhubarb growing INDOORS in the dark, out of season, using only the plants’ natural requirements for growth. Listen – you might just hear it growing!

Did you know that this plant produced the most wondrous drug of the time since 2700 BC?

LEARN THE BENEFITS THAT EATING RHUBARB CAN GIVE TO YOU NOW!

Is the massive interest in rhubarb due to simply another food fashion trend?

Have you heard about these extremely popular tours of the forcing sheds, and always wanted to come? Have you tried in the past and we were always fully booked?

Visit this full-working farm, run by a family who has 5 generations of experience.

TRADITIONALLY GROWN YORKSHIRE FORCED RHUBARB – A National Treasure, The pride of Great Britain.

Please make your visit selection from the availability, finally checking with the farm on (0113-2822245) for this very popular treat. Once availability is confirmed and provisionally booked with our main office, post your cheque payment, and completed the booking form. Upon receipt of your payment your tickets, and sitemap location are dispatched out to you confirming your visit.

THIS COULD BE YOUR GROUP’S MOST INTERESTING VISIT OF THE YEAR, VISITS BY PRE-BOOKED APPOINTMENT ONLY

working in rhubarb sheds
outdoor rhubarb

The History of the Oldroyds
& the growth of Yorkshire Rhubarb.

Originally the Oldroyd family were fruit growers in the Wisbech area. Their close connections with the rhubarb industry began with John Richard Oldroyd, who although the son of a prosperous Cambridgeshire farmer, he decided to branch out on his own, and became a very successful market gardener and businessman; unfortunately, during the depression, he lost everything and decided to move to Wakefield to be close to his daughter Martha Neal who owned a fruit and vegetable shop in Northgate Wakefield.

John found a farm to rent at Lofthouse Wakefield and began growing fruit and vegetables at Pymont Farm. He became friends with a local rhubarb grower and in exchange for passing on his skills at growing strawberries, John was taught the secrets of forcing rhubarb. As John’s reputation for quality produce grew, his eldest son Ernest came to Yorkshire to assist his father in 1933.

Horse_Cart
oldroyds house
Oldroyd Family
ken oldroyd rhubarb king

Ken was a much admired and respected local figure, referred to as The Rhubarb King due to the work he did to save the Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb industry.

The industry declined to such an extent following the Second World war that when railroad deliveries of rhubarb ceased it became difficult for growers to market and transport produce in their individual small quantities. Ken was instrumental in forming the Yorkshire Rhubarb Growers Association in 1967initially from an office at his Carlton Farm, thus enabling growers to market as a group.

He became an advisor at Stockbridge House Horticultural Research Station and was re-elected for eleven years up until re-organisation ended its rhubarb research in 1992. For his services to the rhubarb industry, he was awarded the Northern Horticultural Societies’ highest accolade ‘The Harlow Carr Medal’ in 1995.

His selfless devotion to the industry made him one of the Horticultural industries’ most respected and admired figures of his time.

Ken finally stopped working the land he so loved when in 2002 his driving licence was revoked for failing eyesight. Work was a pleasure; he was lost without it, but never lost interest.

He was determined to expand when others left the industry, selecting certain farms he regarded as the perfect soils for his needs when they came up for auction.

Ken left a great legacy behind, a rhubarb industry that has survived, thanks in part to his determination and dedicated. Today the company he worked so hard to build, produces yearly around 1,000 tons of rhubarb for supermarkets, wholesale markets, and commercial users, and is run by his daughter Janet and Grandsons Lindsay and James.

Ken was well known in local cricket circles being a member of the Leeds League Management Committee and President of his local team, Carlton Cricket Club.

Note from Janet Oldroyd Hulme

I am proud to be Ken’s daughter and promised him, to continue the work that he started, the battle to save the crop, and local heritage industry that he so loved, Yorkshire Forced Rhubarb.

I dedicate this website to all growers past and present and their devoted staff.
All horticulturalists over the years who have devoted themselves to the improvement of this plant and development of the industry, in particular, the late Mr F G Smith, Mr J D Whitwell , Mr M R Bradley. The celebrity chefs and journalists who have helped promote the crop and develop new recipes, but most of all to my father, whose love for, and faith in, both the crop and the industry helped to ensure continued production of forced rhubarb for years to come.