Our love affair with ‘life on the plot’
NOT that long ago, UK allotments languished unused and unloved – with developers ready to buy up plots from cash-strapped local authorities, putting public gardening space in peril.
Thankfully, it’s a different story today, as more of us appreciate the health and cash benefits of growing our own fruit and vegetables.
Black Country folk have always made full use of every last scrap of space. Back yards, no matter how small, found space for some herbs and a rhubarb patch. People scoured waste ground and hedgerows for free food to supplement meagre diets. And, if you had enough space to keep a pig and a few fowl, you could live pretty well.
Affordable
But, if you didn’t have much growing space at home, allotments provided an affordable alternative. Ever since their inception, we’ve had a very British love affair with ‘life on the plot’.
Amidst the urban sprawl, allotments are little oases of calm, where you can be close to nature. At the heart of every plot, there’s usually a shed. Ostensibly, a store for gardening tools, but, more importantly a refuge and meeting place. Most allotments are also very sociable spaces. Like our much underfunded libraries, they are real community hubs, offering a range of activities and resources for all. Here’s how it all started. The history of allotments might be said to go back over a thousand years, to when the Anglo Saxons cleared fields from woodland that was held in common use. But, with the arrival of the Normans, land ownership became more concentrated in the hands of the lords of the manor, the monasteries and church. The poor were increasingly excluded from planting the land for their own use.
During the reign of Henry VIII, the Reformation meant church and monastic lands were seized by the crown and given to nobles to ensure their continued loyalty. Ordinary folk lost out, yet again. Things got worse when Queen Elizabeth enclosed common lands used by the poor for keeping animals and raising crops to feed their families. In compensation, allotments of land were attached to tenants’ cottages. This was the first mention of allotments in British history. It was a small start, but nowhere near enough to ward off starvation for the vast majority of the landless poor.
By the 17th and 18th centuries, more and more land was being enclosed and more people forced to move from the country, to towns and cities. The economy was moving from one of subsistence to a more modern, industrial economy. But there was no safety net to help increasing numbers of poor who could literally starve for want of food, or the land on which to grow it.
By the 19th century the pace of changed had shifted dramatically. General Enclosure Acts in 1836 and 1840 allowed landowners to enclose land without consulting Parliament, as long as a majority was in favour. Understandably, these measures were unpopular. To prevent any civil unrest, a new General Enclosure Act was passed in 1845. This gave a little more protection to small landowners, and the general public.
Poor
Land was also set aside for allotment use. The Act required that Commissioners should make provision for the landless poor in the form of ‘field gardens,’ limited to a quarter of an acre. This was the beginning of the allotments we have today.
Originally, these allotments were set up in rural areas for those dispossessed by the enclosures, and for poor agricultural workers. But as more people moved from the countryside, seeking work in the towns, urban allotments were also needed. Thus, from 1720 onwards, town gardens began springing up in urban areas.
Birmingham was at the forefront of this movement, with its unique ‘Guinea Gardens’. Town gardens differed from allotments in that their boundaries were marked by hedges, and they each had brick-built summerhouses where families could spend weekends and holidays. This was the beginning of the urban allotment movement which flourished throughout Birmingham during the second half of the 18th century.
Today, in Edgbaston, a small remnant of the groups of detached, rented gardens that once encircled 18th century Brum remains. Back then, Birmingham was known as “a town ringed with blossom” – with more than 2,000 town gardens, laid out on sites divided by hedges. They were tenanted largely by skilled workers, paying annual rents varying between 17/6 and 30/-.
In 1849, the skilled workers were described as being ‘engaged in manufactures and shops’.
The Edgbaston Guinea Gardens formed part of the estate of Baron Calthorpe, who’d developed Edgbaston as a high quality suburb. So, there was no shortage of demand for small gardens for rent. The third Lord Calthorpe was also a philanthropist and friend of social reformer William Wilberforce. Hence he saw the Guinea Gardens, in part, as a charitable venture.
The leases for the plots at Westbourne Road, Edgbaston, included the value of the buildings on each plot, whether wooden or brick summerhouse, and a wide range of shrubs and trees. Many of the gardens contained other buildings, such as tool sheds, and privies.
The gardens were highly prized and leases were passed down through several generations of the same family. In the days when holidays were the preserve of the rich, the summerhouses were a blessing. Fitted with a stove, water supply from the nearby Chad Brook, plus an outside privy, they made happy summer holiday and weekend homes for the lucky tenants.
The Edgbaston Guinea Gardens are situated next to Birmingham’s Botanical Gardens. Many of the original features still survive, giving the site an English Heritage Grade Two listing in its register of parks and gardens of special historic interest. The gardens also have many rare heritage apple trees, some dating back to the 17th century.
Demand
As Birmingham was at the forefront of the town garden movement, other towns and cities followed suit. In 1887, an Allotments and Cottage Gardens Compensation for Crops Act obliged local authorities to provide allotments if there was a demand for them.
But many local authorities resisted complying with the act. In 1907, The Smallholding and Allotment Act imposed responsibilities on parish, urban, district and borough councils to provide allotments. This act was revised in 1908, consolidating previous legislation and getting rid of any anomalies.
Morality
To the Victorian and Edwardian establishment, allotments were also seen as an instrument of morality. They were considered a good and productive use of leisure time for the masses, keeping them away from the evils of drink and other vices and temptation.
By the Hungry Thirties they were needed more than ever. Various schemes provided allotments for the unemployed – the establishment seeing these as “a strong counteracting influence” to the “Red and Communistic agitators” to which they believed the thousands of unemployed men might fall prey.
In reality, the unemployed men were more concerned about putting food on the table than politics. On their plots, they could do this, regaining self-esteem into the bargain.
You’ll find more information about the historic Guinea Gardens at:
www.edgbastonguinegardens.org.uk