Allotments in St Leonard, Exeter during First World War. Copyright David Cornforth.

Back to your roots…

Allotments date back to the 1700s when rich landowners allocated strips of land to labourers for growing food. The Victorians believed allotments encouraged a healthy diet and lifestyle for factory workers. During the industrialisation of England in the 1860s country people flooded the cities and established allotments in unused spaces to provide cheap food. During the First World War food shortages led people to grow food on patches of land beside the railways.

Dig for Victory!

But it was the Second World War and Winston Churchill’s ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign which really kick-started the grow your own movement. Even London’s Royal Parks were turned into growing spaces, with 1.4 million plots by the end of the war.

Boys create allotment on bomb site in London's East End. Copyright Imperial War Museum

The 1970s saw a further boom in self-sufficiency thanks to the TV sitcom ‘The Good Life’. However, domestic horticulture took a back seat in the 1980s and 1990s as cheap supermarket food and pressure on land for housing soared.

But in the last decade the grow your own trend has been set once again, with demand for plots at its greatest since the Second World War…

Follow @chloemusson