Grow your own: The story of Wembury’s allotments, 2008-2023
A decade and a half ago, a determined group of Wembury residents began a quest to establish allotments in the parish. Aware of the 1908 ‘Small Holdings and Allotments Act’, which requires local authorities to provide allotments should sufficient demand exist, the Wembury allotments ‘steering group’ approached the Parish Council. Although supportive, the council advised that no suitable land was available as a site for allotments. However, the National Trust, a large landholder within the parish, appeared to offer a solution. Chiming with the Trust’s (then) new scheme to create space for up to 1,000 allotments countrywide by 2012 especially in situations where their establishment might yield benefits for the wider local community, a negotiation commenced regarding whether a site on its Wembury land might be provided. Eventually, in 2008, an offer was made to lease approximately 2.1 hectares (5.2 acres), for allotments. The site was, until then, being worked by New Barton Farm and was located within a large arable field. It lies east of the public recreation park and the southwestern corner of the grounds of Wembury House. Much work took place to agree the detailed terms of the lease, initially for ten years (it was renewed in 2019); the rent payable; and the specific requirements of both parties.
By early 2009, the northern boundary between the farmer’s field and the allotment site was defined by a wire-fence line of wooden stakes. It was to be two years before a hedge of native-trees was also planted along its length. The Wembury Allotment Association came into being, and the task of marking out plots began. After a meeting held in the Odd Wheel, potential tenants signed up, and plots were allocated by the committee drawing lots.
Complicated by the parallelogram shape of the site and the public footpath that runs roughly north-to-south from the edge of the arable field up to the kissing gate at the corner of Wembury House’s grounds, none of the allotments possesses right-angled corners. A request to re-route the north-south public footpath was turned down. Moreover, the unofficial path, formed by walkers using the southern un-ploughed margins of the former arable field, from the kissing gate to the hedge-bank (through which they climbed) bordering the recreation park, had existed almost long enough to be regarded as a ‘permissive path’. Planning permission was sought for a gate to be built across the much-degraded section of the hedge-bank to give level access to the permissive path and provide the (sole) entrance to the allotment site from the western side. The middle gate was only added, following another planning application, after another few years.
It was emerging by April 2009 that dog-walkers regarded the new allotments as another place to exercise their pets ‘off the lead’. A priority, therefore, was to seek a grant to fence in the site and provide gates upon which signs could be affixed to inform walkers that any dog brought through the allotments must be on a leash. Within months, a grant was made for the purpose by the Devon Community Foundation and, early in 2010, an Elburton contractor was engaged to erect the fencing and install ten gates (the later ‘middle’ recreation-park gate, brought the total to eleven). The project was one of many infrastructure necessities that became apparent as the completely bare patch of land was gradually developed. A large community shed, at first thought likely to replace the need for plot holders to have small sheds on their own plot, which the National Trust does not permit, was planned. A composting lavatory was thought necessary, and a shared polytunnel was envisaged to provide a substitute for individual greenhouses, which were also ruled out by the landlord. There is no piped water to the site and a communal rainwater-harvesting and storage system was clearly essential. In addition, unlike the high fences and padlocked gates seen surrounding most local council allotments (and other National Trust allotment sites), it was quickly apparent that Wembury growers’ plots needed to be individually fenced off to deter others from wandering onto the growing vegetables. However, the costs of plot fencing must be met independently by each tenant.
A continuing huge debt of gratitude is owed by every Wembury plot-holder to the original team of founding members of our allotment association and, especially, to members of the first committee, for their tireless efforts in raising the necessary money to pay for all these extremely costly capital items. The scale of the required outlay inevitably far exceeded the revenues generated by annual rents paid by each plot tenant. Any surpluses remaining after paying rent to the National Trust is spent each year on items including (1) affiliation to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners. Indeed, Wembury Allotments relied upon the NSALG for a blueprint to frame the association’s own constitution and rules; (2) annual premiums for public liability, loss and damage insurance arranged for a time through the Royal Horticultural Society to which affiliation is ongoing (3) purchase and maintenance of items of gardening equipment including heavy-duty motor mowers, needed to trim extensive areas of grass surrounding the blocks of allotment plots. Regular servicing of such items and on-going fuel costs must also be met.
Although there were some rejections and disappointments, due to the dedication of those involved, an impressive series of grant applications proved successful. Thus, by the end of 2010, well over £16,000 had been raised. Funds came inter alia from the National Lottery (Big Lottery Fund); winning a Prince’s Trust prize; a ‘Grassroots’ grant from the Devon Community Foundation; grants for several specific items and purposes from Wembury Parish Council, and grants from South Hams District Council. There were also some donations and income generated by events such as barbecues, an open day, and a harvest supper. Enough was gathered to pay for the fencing, gates, community shed and polytunnel. All necessary planning permissions (for the big shed, polytunnel, gates, etc.) involved further costs. Although grant monies for the shed and the fencing projects included labour costs, other projects depended critically on the work of just a few willing volunteers. Thus, planting fruit trees, and other tree saplings, erecting the polytunnel and the metal equipment sheds, and installing the rainfall capture and piped distribution system, were all completed at no additional cost.
Many tenants have their own shed, positioned in blocks on the periphery of the site. Allowed by the National Trust in 2010 at the request of the association’s committee, when it was argued that extra storage space for tools was needed, and individual small shed roofs offered potential for further rainwater capture. However, permission was granted for only a specific number of sheds to be built, all to a standard design.
In a remarkably short time, the originally empty site took on the form and appearance that remains today. It is a lasting testament to those who have worked hard to create Wembury’s allotments. In March 2024, fifteen years exactly will have elapsed since the tenants turned soil for the first time on their plot with their spades. The soil is a very heavy, stony clay with a thick ‘gleyed’ sub-stratum of shillet. Repeated ploughing has left a shallower top-soil along the southern, up-slope, end of the site. Soil slumping thus gradually increased soil depths downslope, but stones are everywhere abundant. Remarkably, however, a few seasons’ tillage can result in an excellent growing medium that is highly productive.
All Wembury allotment tenants have shared an interest in healthy eating, producing high-quality home-grown fruit and vegetables, and reducing food miles. Some have been aware of the physical and mental health benefits of gardening, enhanced still more by pursuing the pastime as part of a like-minded community. Gardening in the fresh air is not just a means to exercise but also stimulates the body’s release of serotonin and endorphins – natural feel-good hormones – that promote mental health and well-being.
However, nothing can disguise the truth that allotment gardening involves hard work. Seductive television garden makeover programmes are a very poor guide to the challenges of horticulture. Moreover, fickle weather and obstacles posed by the voracious appetites of birds, rabbits and rodents, insects, and molluscs, can cause disappointment and frustration. Nevertheless, tenants recognise that the allotments are a wonderful haven for wildlife and a place of biodiversity. In any case, the gains from an allotment vastly outweigh the losses. The food produced tastes infinitely better than any comparable product purchased in a supermarket, and the satisfaction derived from ‘growing your own supper’ is simply incalculable.
By November 2010, minutes of the Wembury Allotment Association indicate that there were 46 tenants. Most rented a full plot comprising 150 m2 for just £25 per annum. There were also 75 m2 half plots at £12.50 a year. The short-lived idea of reserving a small block containing four ‘nursery plots’, where growers might raise seedlings and, perhaps, salad crops, soon saw those spaces converted to additional ordinary plots. Indeed, the micro-geography of the site has evolved and changed considerably in its details since 2009-2010. Today, in 2023, full plots (at £60) and half plots (at £30) continue as the model but, as well as the higher rents, there has also been a more recent growth in demand from new tenants for half plots. In consequence, the association has agreed to subdivide some formerly full-sized plots and , as a result, tenants now total 53. Of course, a very much greater number of people benefit from the produce yielded on the allotments, and notwithstanding some of the difficulties such as occasional thefts and vandalism, Wembury’s site remains highly unusual and – very much upholding the National Trust’s ethos – accessible to members of the public who wish to stroll through and view our gardens.
Conscious of the continuing costs of maintenance and the future replacement of the ‘fixed and moveable capital’ assets (buildings, fences, gates, watering system, and equipment) in recent years it has been deemed necessary to require new members of the association to pay, in addition to their rent, a one-off joining fee (either £30 or £60, according to the plot size). There is also now a £5 annual rent charge for one of the twenty polytunnel spaces, which are allocated on a first-come-first-served basis. The latter revenue covers the cost of cleaning, repairing and maintaining the tunnel.
Past years have not lacked episodes of ‘excitement’. An infestation of rats occurred in 2012 and needed the costly assistance of a vermin elimination company to solve the problem. In the winter of 2018-2019, a very large tree in the corner of the grounds of Wembury House came down in a ferocious storm, crashing onto the community shed roof on the other side of the wall and causing £4,300 of damage. Fortunately, the buildings cover in the association’s insurance funded repairs. More recently, but on a lesser scale, the shed containing the composting lavatory was blown down by storm-force winds. Insurance again came to the rescue in funding the cost. During Covid in 2020, although the polytunnel and large shed were put ‘out-of-bounds’ to avoid the risk of infection, tenants felt blessed to go to their own allotment for fresh air and exercise during the lock-down episodes. However, considerable disagreement occurred regarding the wisdom of the site’s continued open access. Health and safety advice indicated that the allotments should be closed to non-tenants. In practice, this measure proved impossible to enforce. The public still came on-site and warning signage affixed to gates was repeatedly vandalised. As a result, a few plot holders decided to stay away. It was a relief that the disease eventually eased its nasty grip.
Since 2020, grants totalling £4,350, have supported a project to re-wild parts of the site. Not without its dissenters within the association, the venture has nevertheless pursued the objective of further increasing species diversity and contributing to climate change mitigation. Although impeded by Covid restrictions, the grant monies have enabled ‘ParkLife South West’ to write a management plan and,several times, to lead days when volunteers have worked on-site – for example, to create wildflower areas, plant tree saplings (part of the late-Queen’s Jubilee Canopy), and a bug hotel.
Last summer’s excessive heat and drought led to a watering crisis for plot holders. It prompted a demand to add to the water collection and storage capacity of the association’s existing system. Six more 1,000 litre IBCs (intermediate bulk containers) were obtained to augment the eight that already collected water from the large shed’s roof. As many tenants had laboriously carried water from their own homes to save precious growing crops between June and August 2022, the association applied successfully for one of Southwest Water’s community water-saving grants. A sum of £1,000 is now helping towards the cost of purchasing and installing another six IBCs, bringing the total capacity to 20,000 litres. All recent water-conservation work has been carried out by just two or three volunteers.
Back in 2021, the results of a study by the University of Sussex showed that urban allotments (in Brighton and Hove) on average produced 1kg of insect-pollinated fruit and vegetables per square metre during a season: a yield comparable with that of conventional (non-organic) farming. Although the rents charged for a Wembury allotment have certainly risen in recent years, they are still below the amounts charged per square metre for a Plymouth city council allotment, and the value of the output anyway continues massively to exceed the expense of the rent. And for chemical-free, high-quality, flavoursome food, plus health and environmental benefits, allotment gardening is hard to beat.
Any adult parishioner interested in renting a plot should contact Wembury Allotment Association’s Plot Steward: Details are here. At the Plot Steward’s discretion, applications from residents of Staddiscombe and Plymstock have also occasionally been accepted. A waiting list system operates; it grew very long indeed during Covid, but has now returned to normal.
Mark Brayshay
2nd March 2023