Hay and history on the Northern Line

It is a rural idyll within the sprawling metropolis. Just a short walk from the Tube station at Morden Park Hall time stands still.

Behind the high walls of the park the haymaking has started. Traditional methods are maintained on meadowland which has existed for centuries - untouched by insecticide or fertiliser. This is part of the 3 per cent of 'semi-unimproved' pasture left in the British Isles.

The head warden, Paul Rutter, (above) works the land with two of his staff and as many volunteers as he can muster. It takes two weeks or more to harvest 20 acres of the 125 acres of traditional meadowland.

'We use scythes, but when there are only three of us we cheat a bit and use a harvesting tractor. But we still ensure that we harvest a little at a time, giving the wildlife time to relocate to longer grass which we leave for their benefit.

The sight of a tractor would have made the park's former owner, Gilliat Hatfield, shudder. Hatfield was a reclusive millionaire who despised modern technology.

He inherited his millions and 1,200 acres of Morden from his father, also named Gilliat. But the family's 'little empire' in Morden had been acquired a generation earlier.

Mr Rutter, as well as being a haymaking expert, is also unofficial keeper of the family's history.

'Alexander Hatfield married a wealthy woman whose family were in snuff. The newly weds bought Morden Park Hall and built two snuff mills, powered by the River Wandle. They became so rich that they bought a huge chunk of Morden.'

But by the time Gilliat

junior inherited the estate his land was being compulsorily purchased to meet the demands of London's spiralling population.

'He saw his land disappearing and the 20th century creeping closer and closer and he hated it,' said Mr Rutter.

As the developers drew nearer to of the park, the landscaped rose gardens and wild meadows, Hatfield decided to donate his home to the

National Trust. In 1945, when he died aged 75, the trust took over.

'It was appropriate really. He loved the park, but he didn't like living in the big hall so he moved into a cottage. We have been able to maintain it.

'And sometimes, especially when you are making the hay, you cannot help wondering if he's by your side, watching that you're keeping it the way he would have wanted.'

(Photograph omitted)