Rothwell

E Oldroyd & Sons Ltd, 19 March 2025

The Rhubarb Triangle is a 23km2 (9 square miles) delineated by Wakefield, Morley, and Rothwell. It is one of the most distinctive agricultural landscapes in northern England. For more than a century, the Triangle has been renowned for the production of forced rhubarb, a unique cultivation method in which the plants are grown in darkness and harvested by candlelight to produce tender, vividly coloured stems. The practice developed during the 19th century, benefiting from the region’s fertile soils, plentiful supplies of horse manure from the surrounding industrial towns, and easy access to growing urban markets.