THIS week in Down Memory Lane I recall the passing of the Destructive Insects Act in Parliament on August 14, 1877, 136 years ago this month.

The Act was possibly brought on because of a disastrous outbreak of the Colorado Beetle destroying most of the potato crops that year in Germany.

You may be wondering why I raise this, but the importance of the agricultural industry to Thurrock was considerable.

We can trace farming evidence back to the Bronze Age with the discovery of a pattern of rectangular ditched field boundaries by archaeologists at the Mucking archaeological dig.

In more recent times, Farmer ‘Potato’ Wilson, of St Cleres Hall, would have had an eye out for any instance of Colorado Beetle which is disastrous to the potato plant.

Even I can recall posters up at school, warning of the beetle and to report any sightings to the police in the 1960s.

The first outbreak of doryphora decemlineata in this country was recorded in the fields and allotments close to Tilbury Docks in August 1901 – it was assumed they had arrived on ships from America in cargo offloaded in the docks.

A report stated: “The beetles had been observed for some time, and in August they were breeding with great energy. Eggs, larvae in all stages and adults were found on a large patch of potatoes.”

In May 1902, traces of the destruction were found in several fields in Tilbury as well as in the allotments and reportedly eradicated in the following year.

A quick trawl of further local references of outbreaks shows they occurred in 1933, 1937 and 1948, when the Land Army women at Orsett Camp helped to identify beetles and Army helicopters were first used to spay insecticides in Tilbury.

The community was encouraged to crush suspected specimens and then send them to the Ministry.

One way of destroying the beetle was with a strong insecticide and my featured photograph shows men preparing their sprays in Tilbury in 1933.