A lIvelIhood

In 1797, Thomas Bernard, a member of the Society for Bettering the Condition and Increasing the Comforts of the Poor, published a description of a typical cottage garden near Tadcaster in Yorkshire. The occupants, farm labourer Britton Abbott and his family, had been evicted from their cottage, which had two acres and common rights. Abbott applied to his local squire offering to transform ¼ acre of wasteland if it were made available. The black-and-white frontispiece of the publication shows the garden after 35 years of stewardship by Abbott, with row upon row of vegetables. There are 22 established fruit trees including apples, greengages, apricots and plums. Gooseberry and redcurrant bushes grow alongside the vegetables, and three beehives can be seen. The land produced 40 bushels (just under 1 ton) of potatoes annually, while some of the fruit was sold for additional income. Bernard states the empty plot was ‘scarcely worth 1 shilling’, the price then of a 4lb loaf of bread in London, yet now it provided a home, an income and food for a family of seven.