Our allotment sites

The National Allotment Society owns four allotment sites dotted across the UK. Two of which were bequeathed to us via legacies, and all are currently occupied by active allotment groups.

De Frene Road Allotments, South East London

Purchased in 2011 by the Society, this land is currently leased to Sydenham Garden, a charity involved in improving the health and well-being of residents living in Lewisham and Bromley.

The charity provides gardening and creative opportunities for co-workers (the name the project gives to its primary beneficiaries) referred from over 30 community organisations and health sector agencies.

Roddymoor Allotment Gardens, Crook, County Durham

The allotments were founded in 1917, with the National Coal Board acting as landowner until 2000, when the Society purchased the deeds following a period of privatization by the coal industry. Leased by Roddymoor Allotment Association since 1981, the site is home to around 50 plots situated at the top of a hill and surrounded by village housing. Currently all the plots are full, the first time in 30 years with a trend towards growing brassicas. (Picture thanks to Yasmine Hamid)

Whitchurch Allotments, Whitchurch-on-Thames, Oxfordshire

Originally owned by a Samuel Gardiner and then his son, Charles L W Gardiner, the land currently known as the Whitchurch Allotments came to the National Allotment Society back in 1940. At that time it had been owned by a Mrs Jane Uniacke of Eastfield, Whitchurch, since she’d bought it following the death of Charles Gardiner in 1929. As a ‘Deed of Gift’ costing £600, the Society took over the ownership of the land.

During the Second World War the land was used for the Dig for Victory campaign, and in 1965, 1.5 acres of the land was sold off to Oxfordshire Council for £330 so they could build a primary school. By 1967 a Deed of Grant was issued to allow the lane running alongside the allotments to become a right of way and provide access to the allotments and the school.

In 1976 Whitchurch Parish Council took on a 21 year lease from the Society so they could administer the site and rent the plots to Whitchurch and District Allotment Association. The lease between the council and the Society has been renewed, and today the allotments are thriving.

Audenfield Allotments, Churchdown, Gloucestershire

Audenfield allotment site, previously known as The Moor’s Allotments, is on land that was bequeathed ‘in perpetuity’ to the National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners (NSALG). The Society currently hold the freehold and leases this land to Churchdown Parish Council for the use as allotments, with the running of site carried out by the Allotment Amenities Committee, with help from the plot holders.

The land was bequeathed to the Society by one of The Misses Auden, two sisters (probably in-laws) of the poet W H Auden (1907-1973). The sisters lived in Caer Glow a large Victorian house built in 1888 along Station Road. On 13 December 1960, the executor of Miss N Auden’s Will applied to use the land for residential development but was refused by Gloucestershire County Council as ‘the site is defined in the approved Development Plan for statutory allotments, and is likely to be required for this purpose as evidenced by its present use as private allotments’. Following this event the NSALG inherited the site. During the early days, each plot was massive in comparison to the present day, stretching from the boundary fence to the central path; now, as there is a high demand for allotment plots, some are sub-divided in an attempt to reduce the waiting list, which is currently around three years long. The site is popular with young families and has a small social scene with annual gatherings.