history of allotments book

[adrianhumph]

 Hi all,
              For a little light reading at this time of the year, can i recommend The Allotment Chronicles by Steve Poole. I was given this as a christmas pressie & it makes very interesting reading. It is a social history of allotment gardening & covers the period from the early 19th century to today. One point of note is the size of the early plots quite often running into 40 rods rather than our more usual 10 rods. There is a tale of a widow Lydia Hunt who was able to to cultivate 1 &1/2 acres, doing the digging & cutting the wheat by herself.
It should be available from bookshops , maybe even amazon, you can definately get it from the publishers at, www.nostalgiacollection.com

                                                               

[adrianhumph]

[kt.]

  One point of note is the size of the early plots quite often running into 40 rods rather than our more usual 10 rods.                                                           

I was a little surprised when I first got a plot on our site here in teeside. Cmopared to what my dad has where I grew up in durham, it is much smaller. They have probably been halved over recent years due to high demand to ensure maximum people get a fair share.

[Hyacinth]

I remember reading the history behind Robert's Guinea Gardens in Birmingham once....inner city families used to use their allotment as a permanent summer holiday place & decamp there for the duration. Built some spendid summer houses as I recall. Have you read this Robert?

[Robert_Brenchley]

Yes, I'm fairly familiar with it as I'm interested in history. Most of the summer houses were demolished in the 70's. I believe it was by the Council after they took over the site, but separating fact from fancy was a nightmare, and I'm still not sure how far I got at the truth. A couple survived in a sad state of delapidation, one of which has been restored. Originally about 1/3 of the plots had brick summerhouses, and a lot of the others had wooden ones. I've seen one on some similar gardens at Warwick which was quite elaborate, but it obviously depended on how much money people had to spare. At the time, plots were held on long leases, so they had a lot more security of tenure than you have these days, and money was often put into them.

[Hyacinth]

Thanks Robert, and for the other readers, Robert has a plot on a very special site in Birmingham because its history goes straight back so v.v.far.....just wish I'd kept the original pamphlet I saw, but believe that the lease could be 'inherited' by the family (for a price, I'm sure,  of course)...but DO strongly remember that this was a summer retreat of fresh air for a family probably working in the grim industrial and unhealthy inner city areas.....were the plots bigger than current ones? Dunno...

[Robert_Brenchley]

They still are bigger, for the most part. Some were divided in two (half a plot is more reasonable for a lot of people) but most are still the original 600 square yards. With hedges to keep in some sort of shape, it's a lot more than the standard Birmingham plot.
Loads of people used to camp out there for holidays in the days before they could afford to go away, and a couple lived there during the Blitz. If you're interested, I have a brief history of the site, and a copy of someone's reminiscences of my plot during the war. I'll be back in college in a few days, and once I'm back, I can easily photocopy them if you PM me your address.

[adrianhumph]

 Hi all,
           In the book that I have recommended above , there 5 pages of info & history about the guinea gardens, as well as lots of other interesting bits & bobs.

                                                                  Adrian.
                             

[Larkspur]

Hi, I'm reading the Allotment Chronicles at the moment and it is, as Adrian says, very interesting and a fairly comprehensive history of the allotment movement from the very beginning.
I would recommend you be a little wary of Adrian's description of it as "a little light reading". It is well written and appears to be well researched but it isn't the Beano Annual ;) :D ;D.