Leisure Gardens revolution begins
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By 1969 a new radical shake up of allotments was being proposed by Harry Thorpe. Allotments were no longer to be seen as sources of sustenance to supplement the unemployed, but more as a rewarding, leisurely recreational activity.
Thorpe: “Of paramount importance at the outset was the Committee’s decision to place the emphasis on allotment gardening as a rewarding recreation - a productive leisure activity of all classes of citizen - rather than an outdated and over-emphasized economic motive. (...) Strongly related to this was the need to establish an entirely new name for these cherished plots of land, rather than perpetuate the old name “allotments”, with its stink of charity associated with doles of land allotted to the labouring poor. The new name, Leisure Gardens, has now caught on strongly both in this country and abroad, though it will take some time for the high standards that one associates with the new name and the “new look” to spread to all sites”
From: Thorpe, H (1975) The Homely Allotment: from rural dole to urban amenity. Geography, Vol. 60, No.3, pp169-183.
Location: The Leys, Recreation and Community Services, box 17/4.
