Buckden - a Huntingdonshire Village

GARDENING IN BUCKDEN 160 demand for allotments far exceeded the amount of suitable land available (or, rather, of land that the would-be allotment holders considered suitable). Numerous meetings were reported in the press between parish councillors and landowners, not only about the supply of land but about who was entitled to apply for an allotment or small-holding. This led to considerable ill-feeling—or as the Hunts Post diplomatically put it, ‘Few questions have created greater interest in Buckden than the provision of allotments.’ In May 1920, after a year of fruitless discussions, the Beds. and Hunts. Federation of Allotments and Smallholders called a public meeting in the Rifle Range, attended by, among many others, the local MP. The meeting was prompted by the parish council’s having formally invited all who wished for an allotment to send in their names to the Clerk. 1 The chairman of the meeting, Mr F. Smith, began by saying (to general approval) that he was very pleased that the parish council had at last awakened to a sense of their responsibilities. (This was perhaps a surprising statement, given that he was himself a parish councillor!) He went on to explain that it would be better if all those who wanted allotments formed an association and submitted a single application in its name. A Federation representative supported this, pointing out that as the council’s sole tenant such an association could save the parish the expense and trouble of dealing with individual allotment holders over rent collection, weed control, etc. The immediate outcome of the meeting was the formation of a branch society for Buckden and district. The 1924 Ordnance Survey plans bear witness to the result: Parcel No. Area acres Area hectares Notes 60 5.13 2.08 Hardwick 70 1.39 0.56 Hardwick 2 105 11.07 4.48 Now St Hugh’s Road, Beaufort Drive and Wolsey Gardens 147 2.90 1.17 Silver Street – existing 163 1.99 0.81 Van Diemens Lane ) 204 1.65 0.67 Van Diemens Lane ) off Mill Road 206 5.76 2.33 Van Diemens Lane ) 324 12.86 5.21 Perry Road 330 0.78 0.32 Great North Road – existing 43.53 17.62 TOTAL The demand for allotments fluctuates: it unsurprisingly increased during the Second World War (the young evacuees from London were given ground on which to produce food for their school), but as the twentieth century drew to its close, fewer people felt the need—or had the time—to grow their own food. There was little general concern when the Church Commissioners sold for housing the area of parcel 105 now under Beaufort Drive and Wolsey Gardens (there was rather more concern on the part of the existing allotment holders!). Eighty-five years on from the above table, the present area of allotments is only about 8% of the 1924 figure. Ironically, there is now a waiting-list. Concerns about food safety and food miles— and in a recession about the price of food—mean that more people see the benefit of controlling the production of what they feed to their families. It is unlikely, however, that anyone today would seek to grow a wheat crop, as some earlier allotment holders did (on their admittedly larger plots). One such enterprising 1920s grower, who raised an ‘excellent piece of wheat in Taylors Lane [i.e., Hardwick] allotments … one of the best in the district’, was none other than parish councillor Mr F. Smith. 1 This invitation may have been the result of an offer from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners of potential allotment land in the Big Hoo and Little Hoo, which the Parish Council had decided to accept. 2 The Hardwick allotments often caused problems for the parish council: malodorous effluents would run off the land into Hardwick Lane, to the fury of local residents. The lane is still plagued by occasional flooding that exacerbates the damage done to its surface by heavy traffic; but at least it doesn’t smell as bad.