Agricultural History Review, Volume 74 Part 1 (2026), pp. 70–90

Gooseberry cultivation was a robust industry and cultural pastime for much of the early modern period. By the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the berry and other fruits had become important to farmers seeking refuge from the Agricultural Depression and seeking to revive British farming. In 1906, however, a fungus called American Gooseberry Mildew began to sweep through gooseberry growing regions, and fruit growers urged agricultural authorities to control the disease. Although initially tardy in its response, the Board of Agriculture eventually urged farmers to co-operate, and imposed phytosanitary controls in partnership with local authorities. However, frustrated by continually rising cases and negative interactions with fruit growers and local authorities, the Board eventually developed a paternalistic attitude towards the industry. Agricultural officials saw themselves as more competent defenders of horticultural interests than actual farmers. This, in turn, justified not just interventionism, but increasingly coercive and expansive restrictions on the gooseberry industry, challenging the conventional narrative that laissez-faire ruled phytosanitary policy in this period.