Maurice Cass says:Some of the land was leased to a local farmer who grew wheat, linseed, and oil seed rape. The land that received the sludges was never used for any agricultural products during my time although we did talk of planting flax at one point. In the late 19th and early 20th century there was no control over what went into the sewer. It was more or less a free for all. Controls had to be put in place when the biological treatment was introduced in 1969 to protect the process. The lack of initial control resulted in the land at Etwall receiving a high metal load which made the land unsuitable for producing crops for human consumption, hence the talk of growing flax and similar crops at one point I did put some land down to grass which was let out for grazing sheep. The land gave me a lot of pleasure watching and listening to the skylarks in the spring.