280 SMALL HOLDINGS SYNDICATES 



have bought land, at an excessive price, with borrowed 

 money, and been ruined by the exorbitant interest. 

 But, notwithstanding his own strong sympathies with 

 the small holdings movement, he has fully recognised 

 the value of the service which a connecting link between 

 landlord and small holder may serve, as the story I have 

 now to tell will show. 



In 1892 there was formed at Spalding Common a 

 thickly populated suburb in the west of Spalding 

 (Lincolnshire) a Provident Allotments and Small 

 Holdings Club, which had for its object, ' To enable 

 persons desirous of obtaining land for allotments and 

 small holdings to assist each other by combination with 

 a view of (i) treating collectively with local authorities 

 or private owners; and (2) holding a reserve fund, if 

 necessary, for rent.' The idea of such a club adapted 

 itself the more readily to the minds of Lincolnshire 

 labourers and small cultivators because almost every 

 Lincolnshire village has a friendly society in one form 

 or another, and the payment to a Provident Allotments 

 Club of small periodical sums towards the renting of 

 land would be no more than supplementing the sub- 

 scriptions regularly paid for sick benefits on life insur- 

 ance. So the club prospered, and an application for 

 land was made to Lord Carrington, who arranged with 

 one of his tenants to let direct to the members, in 

 acre lots, a field 33 acres in extent. In the follow- 

 ing year (1893) more land was asked for by the club, 

 and Lord Carrington allotted to the members a field 

 on an adjoining farm. The 35 acres in this field were 

 divided in acre lots among as many tenants, who, in this 

 instance, were to pay their rents to the estate agent. 



But that gentleman's offices were several miles distant 

 from Spalding, and, apart from the inconvenience, from 

 an agent's point of view, connected with a system which 



