Sheds on Allotments

[johnofwessex]

When I restart work  on it I was thinking of incorporating some allotments on my model inspired by Midford & set (amongst other periods!) 1930 - 1960

 

Looking at photo's

 

1. The allotment site by the L&B at Barnstaple Town doesnt have any sheds

2.  There were clearly allotments adjacent to the track around Bath in the 1950's but these seem to have been bandoned by the 1960's

 

None of these have sheds.

 

Given the disposable income at the time and that the Bath allotments were probably set  up under 'Dig for Victory' it seems likley that these might not have shedson them, but were sheds common on allotments at that period or not?

[doilum]

Behind my childhood home in Castleford there was a plot of abandoned land of perhaps 3hectares. This had been ear marked for a new school in the 1930s ( eventually built in the mid ,70s) but was used for the war effort. Whilst there were several brick built structures eg pig sties and green house bases and an enclosed poultry compound made from railway sleepers, I do not recall any sheds. Up to now I had not given it much thought. Time to research further.

[phil_sutters]

I suspect that lineside allotments may have had less sheds than other locations. This could have been because the railway workers, who cultivated them could have had access to railway buildings to store their tools etc. There may also have been safety considerations of having unofficial structures on railway land.  I can only find one photo among all Dad's albums with even the edge of a lineside allotment. The only discernable 'structure' was a row of beansticks at right-angles to the track.

I don't know whether it is a modern(ish) practice, but travelling on Eurostar in the '90s through northern France and Belgium, allotments seemed much more regimented, with each plot having its own standardized shed.

[LBRJ]

What you are thinking of is really more like 

 

Bits of land that people would grow stuff, as and when they could.

 

Proper Allotments are a legally defined facility that, even today, Councils have to to provide.

They would have some sort of access to running water and most definitely a shed - probably a cold frame or 3 and maybe even a rudimentary greenhouse.

The shed was where you slept when you took the family up for the weekend to tend the crops

 

[Michael Hodgson]

Until people had cars allotments would usually be within walking (or at least cycling) distance of the allotment holders' houses, and a shed would only be necessary as a place to keep tools and supplies such as feed for chickens.   These days you might leave crops in them for a while, eg onions hanging up to dry.   A tool shed would typically be quite small.  Nowadays a shed is often a 6' x3' prefabricated building, supplied flat-packed.   They are not on proper foundations and in exposed locations commonly blow over in stormy weather. They then need repairs, often with materials that don't match.   Councils don't usually provide sheds, that's down to the allotment holders, though there is often a committee that lays down rules.  They might want to regulate sheds and to stop the place looking too much like a shanty town, but mostly they are concerned with use of communal standpipes and people who neglect their plots and cause a weed nuisance to the other plots.

 

During the war a shed would probably be cobbled up (or a prewar shed repaired) using whatever old doors and odd planks or similar could be salvaged or scrounged as timber was in short supply and needed for the war effort.    As such, it might well be smaller, perhaps only the size of a privy, and not even necessarily tall enough to stand in - after all it only needed to be big enough to hold spade, fork,  watering can etc.  Wheelbarrows can be left outside.

 

Sheds are easily broken into, so you wouldn't leave anything of value (these days perhaps power tools).  With many foodstuffs being rationed, you would probably take home anything ready to eat (or perhaps to barter).  It would have been wise to have some sort of rota for keeping an eye out for anybody stealing crops or even tools.  People knew their neighbours and who belonged there.  With widespread concerns over possible paratroopers, escaping PoWs  (or more plausibly, enemy aircrew who had been shot down or even Allied deserters on the run) the Home Guard and police would want to know of any strangers who were seen.

 

 

 

 

[doilum]

I took the time to browse through a book of Jack Hulme's book "world famous round here". There is a photo of miners working on a trackside allotment in the shadow of Fryston colliery. The photo dates from the 1930s or perhaps the war years as all the wagons are in colliery livery. What surprised me was the scale of the cultivation with a patch of cabbages covering perhaps half a hectare. Likewise the green houses were more on the scale of the municipal park than a suburban garden. The sheds too are on the scale of a single garage and there is not an old door fence in sight. These are I think, a feature of the 1960s as slum clearance gained pace.

On reflection, there are no pigeon lofts either, this may be a dig for victory allotment on land released by the colliery owners. A Google image search for Jack Hulme Fryston showed another photo with a tractor and trailer lending weight to the wartime date.

A later post war photo ( the wagons have NCB lettering) shows this area has reverted to pasture and was probably the field reserved by the colliery for grazing the ponies during the annual holiday.

Edited February 1, 2021 by doilum
Additional information

[johnofwessex]

21 minutes ago, doilum said:

I took the time to browse through a book of Jack Hulme's book "world famous round here". There is a photo of miners working on a trackside allotment in the shadow of Fryston colliery. The photo dates from the 1930s or perhaps the war years as all the wagons are in colliery livery. What surprised me was the scale of the cultivation with a patch of cabbages covering perhaps half a hectare. Likewise the green houses were more on the scale of the municipal park than a suburban garden. The sheds too are on the scale of a single garage and there is not an old door fence in sight. These are I think, a feature of the 1960s as slum clearance gained pace.

On reflection, there are no pigeon lofts either, this may be a dig for victory allotment on land released by the colliery owners. A Google image search for Jack Hulme Fryston showed another photo with a tractor and trailer lending weight to the wartime date.

 

My brother who lived in Sheffield commented that unlike Bristol, where I lived at the time, Greenhouses were much more common in gardens & on allotments there because the last frost was significantly later and there was a greater need to protect tender plants 

[doilum]

18 minutes ago, johnofwessex said:

 

My brother who lived in Sheffield commented that unlike Bristol, where I lived at the time, Greenhouses were much more common in gardens & on allotments there because the last frost was significantly later and there was a greater need to protect tender plants 

In later years it wasn't uncommon for the greenhouse to be heated with a small coal stove and back boiler. This created a cosy man cave where early cut flowers and tomatoes could be grown and where escape could be found from women, the world and work. Most kept a few chickens or rabbits.  Some men chose to enhance their wage with an extra shift or two, others sold the produce of their allotment, the trade being done in the doorway of the local working men's club.

[Caledonian]

Back in the day it was one of my jobs to administer lineside allotments.

 

Sheds were forbidden - so were children and other livestock.

 

They also fell into two officially designated categories. Allotments could be quite large and weren't that common. Most were actually designated as lineside gardens and were directly accessed from adjacent properties, usually the bottom of a regular garden, and weren't fenced off.  The basic principle was that they were occupied at the pleasure of the District Engineer and he had to be satisfied that they weren't going to interfere with sighting and access.