ISHS Acta Horticulturae 523: XXV International Horticultural Congress, Part 13: New and Specialized Crops and Products, Botanic Gardens and Human-Horticulture Relationship
REINVENTING ALLOTMENTS FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: THE UK EXPERIENCE |
| Author: | D. Crouch |
| Abstract:
Like many other European countries the UK has a long heritage of allotment holding. This dates back to the British Civil War in the 17th century, the enclosure of common land from the farming poor in the 18th, and the response to mass urbanisation in the 19th century.1 Allotments have traditionally been regarded as important for growing food, argued on the basis of income support and providing good quality food for people of lower income. In many areas of the UK, and across the world, this remains a profound reason for allotment holding. I use the expression allotment holding because this refers both to the active work that takes place on allotments and their tenurial status; indeed the British word 'allotments' indicates this, as small pieces of land 'allotted', and rented from a landowner/landlord. Today most allotment sites are owned by, and rented from, local councils across Britain. Whilst allotments peaked in numbers in each world war in the twentieth century, plot numbers have remained at about one half million for much of this century. Now, however, the number has declined to one third of a million.2 This arises largely from sites being developed for housing and other uses. This has happened largely because allotments provide readily 'available' land (largely non-toxic, no ground clearance of old structures involved). Moreover, there has been a tendency to regard allotments as an easy 'soft touch' politically, and allotments have through the middle of this century suffered an image of being anachronistic, the old man in a cloth cap, struggling to gather a few crops. Whereas countryside areas have strong political lobbies to defend their areas from development, for much of this century allotments have not. This situation has been changing over the past twenty-five years, borne on the wave of renewed interest in environmental issues and also an awareness of the community-building value of allotments. Cultivation is therefore healthy, aesthetic, cultural, provides food and is of social benefit. It is around this aggregate of issues that recent arguments for safeguarding and extending allotment holding have developed. This article only very briefly touches on the significant conceptual and theoretical issues and concerns raised by contemporary allotment holding. These include sociological, anthropological, economic, environmental, and especially for me cultural geographical concerns. | |
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