Exhibition

The FIG Tree Fair Trade and slave trade Exhibition

Visit The FIG Tree exhibition, now by appointment only, to learn about the internationally renowned ‘Garstang Story‘ that encompasses the historical legacy of:

-How nearby Garstang became the world’s first Fair Trade Town and the growth of the international Fair Trade Towns movement that led to over 2,00 Fair Trade Towns in more than 30 countries.

-Chocolate, especially through our link with the cocoa farming community in Africa’s first Fair Trade Town of New Koforidua in Ghana.

-The Atlantic slave trade and its abolition; Lancaster was Britain’s fourth largest slave trade port.

Along with our friends in New Koforidua and Media PA, the first Fair Trade Town in America, Garstang forms a part of the modern day Fair Trade Triangle, which lies on the same three points as the infamous slave trade triangle of the past.

“It is simply immoral that people should be allowed to suffer in order to provide us with luxuries such as tea, coffee and sugar at a cheap price.”

Slave trade abolitionists circa 1790


Quaker heritage; Garstang is located in ‘1652 country’ where Quakers (The Religious Society of Friends) were founded by George Fox in 1652.

Join the FIG Tree as a member