History of the Association

The Association recorded its history in 2017, its Golden Jubilee year. 

Introduction

The idea of capturing a history of our Allotment Association coincides with the 100 year anniversary. It can only be a snapshot of the thousands of events and lives that have joined the celebration of owning and growing fruit and vegetables together.

The Association produced an Annual Yearbook, which was the only membership handout, principally recording the Annual Show schedule and accounts and some editorial additions. This has not been produced for nearly 20 years but to attract new members and to celebrate our Centenary Year the decision was taken to start the practice again.

In its heyday, membership of the Association was around 1500 with the Annual Show a large and well attended affair. Unfortunately, with the advent of garden centres and DIY stores offering a wide range of gardening supplies, often at discounted prices, membership and usage of our Trading Huts in Ascott Allotments and at The Searchlight Trading Hut in Haslemere Avenue has fallen away and we need to find new ways to attract members to use the Trading Huts and participate in the Annual Show not just from the Allotments but from the local Community.

We hope you enjoy this step back into the history of our Association.

Just because some people have never heard of Allotments is no reason that they should not be cherished and celebrated!!

Similarly, some people have never heard of Allotment Associations – there is no reason that they should not also be cherished and celebrated – there are not many left!!

History of the Association

During the submarine menace to our food supplies in 1917, the demand for Allotments began to grow and Ealing Council decided to take over a piece of land, owned by Colonel Clitherow, in Boston Road, Hanwell.

This piece of land, bounded by the District Railway to the south and the piece of Clitherow Avenue then existing on the north, was cut in half by a footpath that ran from the Boston Road to Haslemere Avenue and then terminated at the gates of the Charity Allotments.  The Allotments laid out on the half of the land to the north of the footpath were called “Boston Road North” and those to the south “Boston Road South”.

The Allotments on the north side were let on Good Friday 1917, the Council sending Mr Platford down to the ground to allocate the plots. Unfortunately, it snowed very hard and Mr Higginson, who lived at 78 Haslemere Avenue kindly offered the use of his house for the signing on process.  After having had an Allotment allocated, a few of the hardier ones went to view the piece of land that they were going to cultivate. Most of them were new to the art of agriculture and it was with a little dismay that they looked at the ground covered in snow.

On Easter Saturday, the weather had improved and practically every one of the new plot holders turned up, accompanied by their families, and started in earnest to dig their plots ready for planting.

Until this time most of them were strangers to one another, but soon began to get friendly and, as time went on, they all began to take an interest in the plots as a whole.  This led to discussions between the plot holders and it was a general feeling that an Association should be formed to look after the interests of the plot holders and also with the object of obtaining supplies at a cheap rate.

A meeting was therefore arranged in June 1917 to take place on the ground of the Searchlight Station that had been erected on the site subsequently occupied by the Off Licence of the Royal Hotel.  The Ealing and Hanwell (Boston Road) Allotment Association was duly formed.

It was decided that trading should form one of the aims of the Association and a quantity of shallots was purchased and retailed from a barrow in Haslemere Avenue. A profit was made which purchased a quantity of lime – sold from a shed in Northcroft Road. Then seed potatoes were also obtained and sold from a garage in Kingsdown Avenue.

There was another Association in Hanwell – the Hanwell Allotment Association that merged with Ealing and Hanwell in 1918

As aforementioned, the huts, by the mid 1960s, were over 50 years old, they had not been placed on proper footings and were full of dry rot, as were the other huts at Ascott & Blondin.  The Council replaced them with the concrete buildings we see today, but the Blondin one was dismantled since.  I believe its concrete base is still on the orchard site, adjacent to the Boston Road entrance.

In 1939 when the Second World War started the Association urged the Council to provide land for wartime Allotments and it was through its efforts that Allotments were allocated in Walpole, Lammas and Elthorne Parks, Northfields Recreation, Northfield Playing Field, Almond Avenue and Chartered Banks. This brought the number of plots under the jurisdiction of the Association to just on 2,000 including permanent and wartime plots.

At this time, the Association was large with a membership of 1,461 – a committee of 26 – a President, three Trustees, Hon Secretary, Hon Treasurer and Hon Auditor.

There were three sub committees including Ground Management – with 19 Ground Stewards and two plot managers and eleven sites. There was also a Chrysanthemum Committee and a Dahlia Committee.

In 1950 the Council acquired the “Lady Rawlinson Trust” site next door to Ascott 1 that was then passed to our Association for administration and renamed  Ascott 2.

With the return of wartime emergency sites to their peacetime uses the number of Association members reduced substantially – but, for a number of years, continued to remain steady at around 600-700.

With the creation of the enlarged Borough of Ealing in 1965 the new Council took over the administration of their Allotments, allocation of plots and collection of rents from the Association and appointed Plot Managers.

Under the direct control of the Council, the next thirty years led to a sad decline of Allotment Sites and plot holders. Council Officers were not prepared to allocate either time or budget to ensure success. In fact, during this time, the advent of the Country Park with “Wild Life” only areas was advocated.

During the nineties the fight back started, led by members of Ealing and Hanwell (Boston Road) Allotment Association – the Local Agenda 21 Natural Environment and Biodiversity Group and the LA21 Allotments Group were formed. Our Association increased Trading – Ground Stewards once again made regular reports from Haslemere, Northfields, Carberry and Ascott Allotments. We provided representatives to the Ealing Allotments and Gardens Society, had one Councillor, produced a regular newsletter, and had a very successful website “Allotments.org”. There were regular “Fund Raising” parties which, besides introducing likeminded people to each other, provided money to pay for guest speakers to help our members learn how to grow vegetables and flowers more successfully. We also persuaded the Council to appoint a dedicated Allotment Officer

Unfortunately, with everyone having increasingly busy lives volunteers to help are now in short supply and we are increasingly reliant on a small band of people who volunteer to keep the Association going, providing staffing for the trading huts and putting on the Annual Show.

Since I joined the Committee in 1989 – 27 years ago – I have watched lots of organisations around Ealing come and go – Ealing and Hanwell [Boston Road] Allotment Association is still here!

 Nigel Sumner – Secretary (2017)