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The History of West Wickham Allotments

The History of
West Wickham
Allotments

In 1912, a field in Hawes Lane was divided into 65 plots. This was followed by the addition of a second field and another 29 plots in 1918, creating a total of 94 in over seven acres land. The fields were probably owned by Rectory, with the first record of rent being £14.15.3d paid to the Rector. At the time the title was the West Wickham Allotments Society, which later changed to an Association. The Secretary from 1935-1975, Ted Jeffries, wrote a comprehensive history of the Association, in which he refers to the original plotholders as ‘Old Villagers’, which underpins the rural nature of the area at the time.

In 1926 the site was purchased by Mr G F Rogers who was keen to preserve the view from his house, The Mount, later re-named Tudor Court. A five-year agreement was made whereby Mr Rogers received £25 a year rental for the site, which was sub-let to plotholders at 8d per rod. A rod is an ancient unit of measure, approx. 16.5 feet sq. – 10 rods is about 250 sq. metres.

In 1936 part of the site was lost to provide Glebe Way, with the Council replacing these plots with the land known as the ‘Smallholding’ between the site and Seabrook Drive Gardens. In 1937 individual plotholders became direct tenants of the Council, and West Wickham came under the control of Beckenham Council which insisted on buying the land in Hawes Lane. As the Council had a statutory duty to provide allotments, the strategy of buying existing plots seemed a simple way of fulfilling this duty.

The original water supply on the site was in ½” galvanised pipe from a meter in Hawes Lane to just four plots. The inevitable problem was that when the first tap was turned on, no water was available to the others. As a result, water was rationed, with Ted Jeffries standing by the taps each evening for 20 minutes at a time. In January 1939, the Council came up with the ‘generous’ idea of supplying materials for a better supply, whereby the plotholders would dig the trenches and refill them so the council workers could lay the pipes.

The Trading Shed was built in 1938, with donations made to fund the construction – timber and roof felt at a total cost of £14. The lockers were first erected in 1949 by volunteers, with the council supplying the materials.

West Wickham Allotments Association became fully self-managed in 1970 and in 2019 it was incorporated as a Limited company, as required by Bromley Council. This resulted in the lease being renewed for a further 20 years.

Our thanks and acknowledgements to the late Ted Jeffries whose history of WWAA contributed to this page content.

Trading Shed

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