90 UPWEY, DORSET 



Parish Allotments. 



In answer to a demand from working men, 25 

 acres outside the village were acquired by the Parish 

 Council at 2 an acre. The land was set out in 

 J-acre plots and let at the rate of 3 an acre, the 

 Parish Councils paying the rates. 



At the end of three years the greater number of 

 the plots were given up, and would be on the 

 hands of the Parish Council if some of the market- 

 gardeners had not taken them on as adjuncts to 

 their own land ; these, however, are not the class 

 of men for whom they were intended. Many of 

 the plots are now unlet. 



In two cases the rent was paid and the land 

 ploughed for the holders by their employer, and 

 they had not troubled to gather the crop. The 

 feeling seemed to be amongst the working men 

 that the land was too far from their homes for it 

 to be worth their while to have the plots (about a 

 quarter of a mile from the centre of the village), 

 and that the rent was too high. 



Tendency of Small Holdings to revert back 

 into Big Estates. 



A retired gentleman farmer, whose family had 

 lived in the district for generations, was of opinion 

 that the small freeholds had a tendency to revert 

 back into larger estates. The owners are invariably 

 heavily mortgaged, and at their death the place 



