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Village Web Site Forum
Denis Marshall Pickles
Norfolk
Wednesday, February 12, 2014 16:54 |
Allotments
The other evening, I watched a very interesting programme on TV. It was entitled 'Britains Great War' and it covered Germany's attempt to starve Britain into submission by cutting off the countries food supplies. 80% of the nations food was imported and the German U boat campaign sought to deprive the population of what it needed to live on. Our government attempted to counter the German plans by introducing food rationing, replacing farm workers who were fighting in the trenches with women and by encouraging individuals to produce their own food at home. What I hadn't appreciated until I watched this programme, was that it was then (around 1916/7) that allotments came into being.
As a child, before and during WW2, I can remember that there were several pieces of land in Sutton used as allotments. There were allotments between Holme Bridge and the mill dam, more between the Baptist Chapel grave yard and Hazel Grove, a big area to the south side of Crag Lane and there may have been others, I'm not sure. Obviously the allotments continued to serve a purpose long after the initial U boat campaign was over. In an allotment opposite our house, Hardy Barrett kept hens. Ernest Waterhouse kept rabbits and a Mr Sandham kept homing pigeons but most allotments were still used to grow vegetables. There was usually a hut on each allotment and a bench or old chair where the allotment keeper would sit and enjoy a pipe of bacca and have a 'call' with his neighbour after doing a bit of digging. Allotments played an important part in the social life of the village.
So my question is this, who provided the land which was to become allotments in the first place? Was it the Parish Council or some patriotic land owner? Who received the rents (I presume they were rented) and finally, are there still any allotments being used in the village? |
Denis Marshall Pickles
Norfolk
Thursday, April 17, 2014 12:14 |
So ............. Are there still any allotments left in Sutton? |
Michael Geoffrey Towers
Longton, Preston, Lancashire
Thursday, April 17, 2014 16:50 |
Denis,
Don't know about any others in the village but the allotments between Holme Bridge and the "old mill dam" still floorish. The mill dam does not having been filled in and houses built on the site.
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Denis Marshall Pickles
Norfolk
Friday, April 18, 2014 08:16 |
'Losing The Plot: Pickles and The Great Allotment Sell-off.' So reads the headline to a front page article in today's Telegraph! Nothing to do with me I assure you |
Joan M. Tindale
Cowling
Sunday, April 20, 2014 18:25 |
There were quite a few allotments up here in Cowling also. Think allotments had to be provided for soldiers returning from WW1 if they wanted them. I have seen in archives that most of our allotments around that time were rented from land owners by the parish council, in order to be re let to residents. This went on for a long time, and if you look on "Britain from Above" site which we discovered only a couple of weeks ago- we were gobsmacked to find Cowling from the air on 7th July 1949 - commissioned by our Binns's Croft and Carr Mills it seems, as the views are all based on and around them, and also all mapped out to make photos from the film - we already had two of the photos.
Don't think any more of our nearby villages are included, but many more towns in the country are - please take a look! Will send it the link to Paul. |
David Laycock
Saturday, April 26, 2014 04:22 |
Hello Denis,
My Dad had one of the ones across from Crag View. I think he rented it from No 10 as I remember, we lost a chunk so he could build a garage for his car (one of the more affuent Crag View residents)! so I am presuming he owned all the allotment area. Remember the photo from Glen Whiteoke's Gallery of the hut, I think that was on my Dad's. |
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