THE RURAL PROBLEM 127 



APPENDIX D. 



ALLOTMENTS. 

 By E. R. Pease. 



The history of allotments goes back, in principle, to the Eliza- 

 bethan period, when laws were enacted that every cottage built 

 must have an acre of garden. In the Inclosure Acts of the 

 eighteenth century, land was frequently allocated for allotments, 

 and this was also provided for in the General Inclosure Act, 1845. 

 The Poor Law Relief Act, 1819, and two Acts of 1831, empowered 

 churchwardens and overseers to hire, purchase, or enclose land up 

 to 50 acres for allotments. An Act of 1882 further requires any 

 land held in trust for charities to be let for allotments. 



The principal Acts are the Allotments Act of 1887, which was 

 administered till 1907 by District Councils, and the Local Govern- 

 ment Act of 189 b, which empowered Parish Councils to acquire 

 land for allotments. By the Act of 1907 (now 1908) district 

 allotments and all powers in connection with allotments were 

 transferred to Parish Councils, and the Act of 1908 embodied and 

 repealed the Act of 1887. County Councils have default powers, 

 and Urban Authorities can and do exercise the allotment powers 

 of Parish Councils. Indeed, whilst small holdings are virtually a 

 purely rural institution, allotments are of high importance for 

 town workmen, and quite a large area is administered by Town 

 and Urban District Councils for the benefit of more people than 

 are concerned with state-provided rural allotments. 



An allotment is a small piece of land let as a garden apart from 

 a cottage. Everywhere considerable areas are so let by private 

 owners, and indeed the Act does not allow a Local Authority to 

 exercise its powers unless it is satisfied that land will not be pro- 

 vided by private owners. There is no record of the area of land 

 let as allotments by the owners direct. 



It used to be said that an allotment was a garden for a person 

 who made his living otherwise ; a small holding was a piece of 

 land off which a man made his living. That is still, on the 

 average, true, though not by any means invariably so. Some 

 allotment holders earn their livings thereof, and many small 

 holders use a holding as a subsidiary source of income. But by 

 law a small holding is land provided by a County Council (or 

 under the Small Holding Sections of the Act), and an allotment 

 is land provided by a Parish Council, or under the Allotment 

 Sections. 



The Board of Agriculture Report on Allotments for 1912 

 (Cd. 0832) shows that 7,143 acres of allotments were owned, and 

 23,946 acres leased, by Local Authorities in England and Wales, 



