This is the message from the Local Government Association who promote the interests of just under 500 local authorities in England and Wales. They estimate that 200,000 plots have been lost since The Good Life last made allotments popular and there just aren’t the plots now to satisfy current demand, with 10 year waiting lists in some areas. So they are urging local authorities to use their existing powers to ensure that land for allotments is provided with large urban developments.  read more »

This is the allotment site on Priory Road, Hungerford. It’s not a big site, less than an acre, but it is extremely well kept, and even at the scragg-end of winter it’s impeccably cultivated. The Roman Catholic Church who own the site have given the tenants notice to quit so that they can develop the site for housing.

Their eviction depends on an alternative site being found for them, so it’s not hopeless, but the site is bang in the middle of a housing estate and this is exactly where allotments need to be. Allotments aren’t a bit of ground where you grow stuff, that’s a field; allotments are the fabric of society. They can’t be hidden away on the outskirts like some out-of-town shopping centre; allotments are the corner shop where you potter down for a root of tatties and a chat over tea in the site shed, where mums push babies in buggies and software engineers weed onions and bathe their brains in the narcotic tedium with their company cars at home on their drives where they belong.  read more »

St Anns , the 75 acres of inner city allotments in the heart of Nottingham, has been awarded just under 2.5 million to restore and maintain the oldest and largest Allotment site in the world. This is great for allotmenteers and a boost generally to an area of food production and recreation that has suffered, until recently' from a long period of decline. Perhaps, the award of this grant, is the ammunition that your allotment committee needs to present a case for more funds to be made available in your area?  read more »

I recently contacted a handful of fellow bloggers in the UK suggesting we might organize some sort of event and get together. There was enough interest to make it seem like it would be worth trying to organize something, so I’m posing the idea to everyone else. Since I am not from the UK, and don’t live there, my ability to plan something like this is very limited. Please help me out here with any suggestions or corrections!  read more »

These are the highlights of the guide.  read more »

Monday the eleventh of August heralds the start of National...Philip Voice

National Allotment Gardens Trust National Allotments Week August 11th - 17th 2008 A week to promote the awareness and availability of allotments both locally and nationally and to show the public and the local authorities the strength of support and interest for the heritage of allotment culture. The social benefits of allotment gardening include: benefits to health education community [...]

Did you know that under Section 23 of the 1908...Philip Voice

I wonder how much the average allotmenteer knows about LA21? I suspect that many of the new-generation that have swelled allotment sites to capacity in the last couple of years have a good idea what it’s all about and that whole bag of sustainable-environmental-friendliness has a lot to do with the current popularity of allotments. I guess I’d subscribe generally to the principles but my philosophy is more directly inspired by Geoff Hamilton. I have his frugal outlook which is well adapted to allotment life and I share his respect for nature. I fear zealots, be they vegetarians, management consultants, environmentallists or born again beelzebubians and Geoff was that rare animal - a man of conviction who was happy for you to disagree. I don’t think he’d even have liked it much that I wanted to follow his philosophy, I think he’d have liked that I’d worked it out for myself.  read more »

East Ditch

The Berkshire Records Office have digitized all the enclosure awards and maps that they have and the 1858 enclosure of Wash Common is part of that. I found it particularly interesting because the allotments were enclosed at this time and the hedges and ditches around the site are a direct consequence of this. I’ve posted this picture before, but it’s significant here.

The enclosure award is clear that the east ditch was originally hedged on both sides. Neither hedge exists as such any more. There are some hawthorns on the far side with quite a bit of holly but the chain link fence now provides the physical barrier and it’s heavily overgrown with ivy which is choking what hedge remains. On the allotment side there was a young blackthorn thicket hiding a few older hawthorns in the hedge line, but I cut all of that down over the winter to clear the ditch.  read more »