The allotment is slowly disappearing from England's cities, towns and villages. These community gardens were originally conceived as pieces of land that could be rented from the local authority, for a nominal fee, on which people could grow food to supplement their income. Over the years, as incomes rose they became places where people grew food crops, flowers, sometimes crops for sale, more by way of a hobby than out of any kind of deep necessity.
With that change came the realisation that the standard sized allotment (c. 250 square metres) was too large for modern needs and so many were reduced in size. A decline in interest in renting an allotment some areas, coupled with a shortage of land for housing and other uses resulted in many allotments being sold off. Today the take-up of allotments varies considerably from place to place with some thriving and others moribund.
The village where I live has allotments and the other evening, as the sun was getting low in the sky, we walked through them. A group of ornamental
photograph and text © Tony Boughen
Photo Title: Allotment Poppies (correction, Ranunculus)
Camera: Olympus E-M10
Mode: Aperture Priority
Focal Length: 150mm (300mm - 35mm equiv.) crop
F No: f5.6
Shutter Speed: 1/400 sec
ISO:200
Exposure Compensation: -0.3 EV
Image Stabilisation: On
