Under the Enclosure Acts of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries efforts were made to provide plots of land for non land-owners to cultivate. Later Acts made this provision compulsory for local authorities who are entitled to charge a rate to maintain and buy allotments. During both world wars people were encouraged to grow food on allotments: the teenaged Derek Brickwood had one (in Kingston, Surrey) briefly in the early 1940s.

At Easter 2000 we took on a vacant half allotment (about thirty feet by thirty feet) at Highbury, West Jesmond, on the edge of the Town Moor. Here are two general pictures of Highbury allotments, showing some of the more established central plots:

We'd never done this kind of gardening before: to see how we got on press the NEXT button.