‘Steamed’ asparagus on the GWSR
• Green ‘gras’ travels on the Asparagus Express from Broadway
• ‘Gus the Asparagus Man’ delights visitors
• Trip promotes protected-status Vale asparagus
07 May 2025: The Vale of Evesham’s protected food name-status asparagus is well into its growing season and to celebrate a bumper crop, bunches of the precious green ‘gras’ travelled by the steam-hauled ‘Asparagus Express’ train from the Gloucestershire Warwickshire Steam Railway’s (GWSR) Broadway station on Sunday 4th May.
The trip, organised by the British Asparagus Festival CIC and the GWSR, supported by Worcestershire’s Vale & Spa, celebrated the long history of the UK’s premier asparagus growing area and featured Gus the Asparagus Man and Asparagus Evie. Nigel Smith, landlord of the National Trust-owned Fleece Inn at Bretforton and Chairman of the British Asparagus Festival CIC, offered bunches of asparagus from nearby Woodfield Farm to travellers.
Nigel Smith explained: “On St. George’s Day, the official start of the British Asparagus Festival, the first ‘round of gras’ is auctioned in aid of charity and taken on a promotional trip which last year, included a journey on the GWSR’s steam trains.
“The ‘Asparagus Express’ was so successful that we decided to make a special trip again this year,” he said. “It’s always popular and it is a great way to promote this very special crop and encourage people to make sure they buy British.”
The GWSR’s head of marketing, Jack Boskett, added: “Gus the Asparagus Man really delighted families enjoying a day out on the train. This was a reminder of the time when hundreds of tons of Vale asparagus was taken to market from stations such as Toddington and Evesham on the Great Western Railway’s Stratford-upon-Avon – Cheltenham line, on part of which the present-day GWSR operates.”
At one time, the railway played a huge part in enabling fruit and vegetable farmers in the Vale to get their products to market, the trains ensuring that they arrived in the freshest possible condition. There was a huge packing shed at Toddington station, where products such as asparagus, soft fruits, Pershore plums, apples, cherries and pears were packed, labelled and put in special railway vans.
Whilst local production has declined against competition from imports (including asparagus from as far away as Peru) it is enjoying a resurgence as buyers turn back to the outstanding quality of indigenous produce. However, train transport had ended by the early 1960s in favour of road.
Added Jack Boskett: “The railway is very keen to support local producers and the interest that our visitors showed in this wonderful Vale product was a great way to do that.”
