Kitchen Garden Forum

Anybody help with a bit of history.
I've been asked to quote to build some 1/43rd scale allotments which are based in Sussex in mid-summer of 1955.

Can anyone advise what should be on the allotments, both vegetation and associated items, eg sheds.

Thanks

Jacqui

Dear Jacqui, i think the veg that would have been grown at that time would have been just the basic vegetables.
Potatoes, Carrots, parsnip, Beetroot, Peas, Beans (broad, runner, dwarf), Onions, Cabbage, Brussels, Kale, Sprouting Broccoli, Swede and turnip.

These veg will depend on what time of the year you are going to base the model on.

As for buildings, everything will have been built out of bits and bobs, but there would have been the odd greenhouse, lots of sheds of all shapes and sizes.
There might have been a few Anderson shelters, those old round top air raid shelters from the war, a lot of people used them for different things after the war had finished.

I'm sure you will get some more suggestions, but hope this helps a litte.

Hi Jacqui
I think you would also have found fruit such as gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries, currants (black/red/white)possibly also a plum tree and greengage tree. A housewife at that time would have made jam (lots of it) and also bottled fruit for use during the Winter months so fruit from an allotments would have been important.
Also there would probably have been chickens and perhaps rabbits too.

This is brilliant. But don't anybody else be afraid to add. I was only a babe at the time so have no memory of it.
Not quite sure how I am going to model fruits yet - they get rather small in that scale
Jacqui

Hello Jaxpoint
Sounds like an interesting project.
Something that might interest you would be a series of leaflets produced in 1945 by the Min. of Ag. on garden and allotment growing.
You can view them at:

http://www.earthlypursuits.com/AllotGui ... tGuide.htm

For us veg. gardeners they are a fascinating read and from a modelling point they have a lot of pen-and-ink drawings that you will find useful. I don't think things would have changed much between '45 and '55.

Hope this helps.

John

Fascinating John

Many thanks for the link

Jacqui

Ee lad, this took me back!
I remember going to my friend`s Dad`s allotment around 1950. He had an old pump to get water up from his well and if we begged him sweetly enough he let us pump like mad until we`d filled the storage tank - an old zinc bath with a wooden lid. We were exhausted when we finished but the water tasted lovely.
Crafty old b*gger wasn`t he?
Happy days!

John - these are an amazing read. If you followed the ministry plan, you could have procduced enough veg to feed half the street, let alone yourself.

You can see how the government at the time was really mobilising the civilian population to do their bit and dig for victory. I especially loved the centipede marching along with the Union Jack and the millipede with the Swastika to show which were friends and which foe.

Sue