Introduction

Allotments were established by the Small Holdings and Allotments Act 1908 with local authorities having a statutory duty to provide them if requested by six appropriate parliamentary constituency electors. A standard size is 10 rods (about 300 square yards or 250 square metres). Allotment numbers peaked during the Second World War at 1.4 million plots – said to produce 1.3 million tons of food. Numbers then declined with some upturns (particularly during the period in the 1970s when TV programmes such as “The Good Life” were current. By 1996 there were around 297,000 plots available but currently numbers are increasing with an upsurge of interest in growing food crops, and waiting lists are now increasingly common (Harrison 2012).