Southam had the second oldest allotments in Warwickshire, set up in 1824 on poor’s land. By the 1890s there was an active Allotment Association with 271 acres of allotments (1.7 acres for each working family in the town!) The surviving allotments in Welsh Road are on glebe land and benefit from a unique tool-shed (see photo above). I assumed it was an old air-raid shelter for workers at the wartime RAF air-field opposite, but have now learned otherwise (see comment below).
Allotments for boys
Dr Henry Lilley Smith set up allotments for boys at Southam in the 1830s. Initially he provided one and a half acres of garden, divided into twelve plots for boys from 8 to 14 years old. The rent was 6d or 1s a month (with no rent payable for the three winter months). The boys had to grow flowers and at least six different kinds of vegetables; some of them also planted fruit trees. Dr Smith encouraged the boys to grow herbs such as mint and sage for sale and also provided a library of books for them to borrow.
Famous visitors to the boys’ allotments
The Labourers Friend Society (a local branch of a national movement) publicized Dr Smith’s initiative and visitors to the allotments included the Speaker of the House of Commons, Byron’s widow and the explorer Sir John Franklin. Later on the boys’ allotments were extended, but sadly the scheme folded after about ten years.
Sources
Most of my information comes from Joseph Ashby’s article in the Warwick Advertiser 24th December 1892, and the obituary for Dr Smith, reprinted in the British Medical Journal on 18th July 1936.
Comments
The air raid shelter was in actual fact a small arms ammunition store when the R.A.F Regiment was stationed at the airfield. Over the years it became over grown with brambles and and at some point in time the entrance was filled with soil and rubbish.
In 1986/87 the late Bill Dennis was in charge of a group of work experience people. My job was to find suitable work for them. I knew that the allotment people were looking for a store of some sort and this building sprang to mind. The group got to work, cleared the whole area, emptied all the junk from it, and fitted some new doors and it has remained a useful building ever since.
Many thanks for putting me right on this Rowan (and for a useful initiative that enabled the recycing of this building). I’ve altered the article appropriately.
I do not know if it is the same allotment, but a Mrs Ann Poulton was a familiar figure and acted as a haulier with her cart and donkey some years prior to 1923. When the donkey died she had him buried at an allotment with a stone memorial tablet.
Source: “Rural Romance: Quaint Tales of Old Warwickshire (Shakespeare’s Country)” by T B D Horniblow
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