Of the plants found in and around Avenham park, you can't tell which were originally (or more recently) added purposefully, and which have drifted from nearby gardens or further afield. I'm curious about the alpine strawberries that cover some of the flowerbeds, and will all have been eaten by the birds before I get to them…

Avenham park was built as a form of poor relief, to employ able-bodied workers left idle by the cotton famine of the 1860s...

Thought of as a direct consequence of blockades on the shipping of slave-produced cotton from the Confederate south during the American civil war, the Lancashire cotton famine also laid bare global connections forged by British imperialism that have shaped the world we now inhabit, and the unconscionable, unsustainable nature of the industry...

I hope you found this scrap-page interesting and/or useful. Cheers, Lauren

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Thanks to Terence Quinn, Steph Fletcher and Alison Clare for tips on Preston history and spring foraging.