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A Brief History of Allotments in England & Wales

In the early and high Middle Ages villagers shared pieces of land around the village to eke out an existence by growing crops and grazing livestock. However, rises in the population and improvements in agriculture put pressure on the “shared” approach, leading to moves to privatise this common land.

Land Enclosure, as it was called, occurred principally in the 18th and 19th centuries, benefiting a relatively small minority (landowners and farmers) while disenfranchising the majority. Fortunately, some members of the landed gentry, politicians and the clergy had social consciences, and they commenced in the 1760s what turned out to be a long struggle to provide allotments for the poor and unemployed by means of individual initiatives and lobbying for legislation.

Members of the nobility who were early providers of allotments in the late 18th century included Lords Carrington, Winchilsea and Egremont. Some providers set rules: Cranfield Church in Bedfordshire required regular attendance at church, the bringing up of the family in a decent and orderly manner, and specified forfeiture of the allotment for any criminal conviction.

The first attempts to legislate for the provision of allotments occurred in the 1790s, but they were easily rebuffed by the landowners’ lobby which was strongly against the idea.

Life became even harder for the poor in the early part of the 19th century for reasons which included: a surplus of labour with the return of soldiers after the Napoleonic Wars; automation in the form of the threshing machine; and somewhat perversely gradual improvements in health which meant more mouths to feed. These factors, coupled with bad harvests in 1829 and 1830, led to the Swing Riots of 1830 and 1831. The rioters were harshly dealt with: 19 people were executed, and over 1,000 were either jailed or transported to Australia.

Lobbying subsequently became more fruitful, in part due to concerns about social unrest after the Swing Riots, and some initial pieces of legislation were enacted.

By the middle of the 19th century a modest level of progress was beginning to be achieved, helped by a gradual decrease in the opposition from landowners and farmers. The increase in the number of allotments was far from uniform across the country, Wiltshire and Lincolnshire being particular hotbeds of activity. However, by 1873 there were around 243,000 plots according to one estimate.

Eventually, an explosion in the growth of the allotments occurred between 1873 and 1945. There were a number of reasons for this growth:

• The movement, which had been predominantly rural in nature up to this point, quickly became urban in the latter part of the 19th century, as town-dwellers sought the means to reconnect with the soil

• changes in local government organisation, coupled with more effective allotment legislation in the period from 1880 through to 1908, led to the public provision of allotments. One estimate puts the number of allotments at around 600,000 just prior to the First World War

• and the food situation during the two World Wars led to purple patches with the number of allotments peaking at around 1.5m during both conflicts.

Unfortunately, the second half of the 20th century saw a rapid descent from these dizzying heights, as the general standard of living gradually increased. The financial requirement of individuals to grow crops diminished, leading to a pronounced waning in the levels of enthusiasm across the nation. By the end of the 20th century there were estimated to be in the region of 250,000 allotments in England. The last 35 years has seen a number of gentle surges in interest, the latest being the significant appeal among young women, particularly mothers, to grow tasty food, free of pesticides.

The enemies of the allotment movement have been, and remain, the insatiable needs of property developers and the apathy of many plot holders. There will undoubtedly be continuing pressures on allotments everywhere, requiring vigilance and goodwill in equal measures if a right that many people struggled hard to win over a period of around a century, and even harder to maintain over the last 100+ years, is to be protected.

Further Reading (Books)

There are a number of interesting books which cover the history of allotments in the UK.

• Poole, S., The Allotment Chronicles: A Social History of Allotment Gardening, Silver Link Publishing, Kettering, 2006. This well-written book by an obvious allotment lover is the result of 20 years research. It is a historical account which is liberally laced with individual stories.

• Crouch, D., Ward, C., The Allotment: Its Landscape and Culture, Five Leafs Publications, Nottingham, 1997. The two authors obtained their material by travelling all over the country, searching out people’s recollections from their youth and their more recent experiences. It is less historical, more social in content. It includes a chapter on the allotment movement in other countries.

• Burchardt, J., The Allotment Movement in England 1793-1873, London: The Royal Historical Society, 2002. This is a professional historian’s view, and as such it provides a more dispassionate, though nonetheless sympathetic, view of the allotment movement during its formative years.

• Moran, D.M, The Allotment Movement in Britain, New York: P. Lang, 1990. This concentrates on allotments in the Swindon area, but it includes a very useful general historical introduction.

Further Reading (Web-based Material)

• Wikipedia article – this has a more international flavour, covering the allotment movement in Germany, Sweden and the Philippines, as well as the UK

• a slightly longer history of allotments in England - a stepping stone between this article and the books that are mentioned above.

• very brief history of allotments in England & Wales

Local Allotment Site Histories

If there is an obvious gap in the history of allotments it is the relative lack of local histories which might help to give us a greater understanding of the movement as a whole. An initial search of the Internet has resulted in the following histories. It is hoped that further links will be added, whether they are to electronic or paper articles.

• Sunningdale Allotments (Berkshire)

 * A History of Edinburgh’s Allotments

• Horsell (Woking)

• London Allotments

• Brighton & Hove

• Firs Estate Allotments (Derby)

• Highcliffe Allotments (Winchester)

• Countesthorpe Gardens and Allotments Society (Leicestershire)

A Call for More Local Allotment Histories

Why not consider writing a history of your site? The majority of sites usually have at least one or two individuals who are interested in history. It can make for a useful and interesting winter project when there is not much to do on the plot.

Possible sources of material in the UK include:

• Council Records
• Council Minutes
• Church Records

Older material in the above categories may be found in the local county Record Office or place where diocesan records are kept.