Timeline

1862

Our first secretary, William Ballard Rainbow was Born.

1889

William Ballard Rainbow married Elizabeth Barr.

21st July 1909

Coventry Gardeners & Small Holders Federation Ltd Founded.

President, C S Ralli Esq: Chairman, Councillor W H Halliwell: Vice-Chairman, A Castle: Treasurer, H L Curzons: Secretary, W B Rainbow: Offices, 10 Cash's Lane.

The Federation is the recognised representative authority for Small Holdings & Allotments in the District. It has direct representation on the Small Holdings & Allotments Committee of the Coventry City Council, by the appointment thereon of three co-opted representatives of which the London Road Allotments Ltd are affiliated to.

1912-13

London Road Allotments Ltd - 220 members with a share capital of 660 x 10 Shilling shares, cultivating 22 acres of land on a 14 year's lease from the Coventry City Council, and 3 acres on an annual tenancy from the Selson Engineering Company Ltd.

In the Photograph above the allotment gardens can clearly be seen surrounding the west & south side of the industrial buildings.

The Selson Engineering Company Ltd was located in St Georges Road between the Gosford Park Hotel and  Grocery store at No 134, this area is now occupied by a housing estate known as Firedrake Croft which is situated between Northfield Road & Humber Avenue.

Secretary W B Rainbow, 10 Cash's Lane

1914

The Coventry Loop Line is opened.

1914 - 1918

When the 1914-18 war broke out, there was a demand for allotments and the committee was successful in obtaining more land from the Coventry Corporation, which extended to Folly Lane ( now Humber Road ) and the Railway and the Pinley side ( Castle Hill South ) the East Side now part of the Seven Stars Industrial Estate.

21st December 1931

Permission requested by the London Road Allotment Society Ltd to carry out certain drainage works.

26th June 1933

Mr W B Rainbow stated that the London Road Allotment Society are anxious to be relieved of the tenancy of a small field of about 3 acres near the tunnel under the Coventry Loop Line, which owing to the situation and the nature of the soil, is not suitable for allotment purposes. The Society asked whether the land would be of use for any Corporation activities.

20th November 1933

Permission requested by the London Road Allotment Society to remove certain trees. This was referred to the Estates and Parliamentary Committee as they had ultimate control over the land.

31st March 1939

A statement by the Coventry Small Holdings and Allotments Subcommittee.

The total area of Allotments provided is approximately 265 acres. Of this, approximately 79 acres are let to individual tenants and the remaining 186 acres are let to Allotment Societies.

19th September 1938

Notification received of the Humber Road widening scheme. The road is to be widened to 64 feet, for which the London Road Allotment Society will lose approximately 700 sq yards. The area of the lease is 50 acres. The Society will be offered a new lease of 47 acres for 14 years from the 25th March 1939. The annual tenancy will be apportioned by the loss of 3 acres.

28th February 1951

A letter was written to R Britain by the Council explaining that they had approved a piece of land for allotment purposes situated in Shortley Road and which was used by the parks department as a nursery garden. The frontage of the land on to Shortley Road is to be used for building purposes. The letter asks if this can be discussed by the London Road Allotment Association Committee to approve responsibility and to administer the new allotment site.

30th November 1983

The East side ( Castle Hill South ) which stretched from Humber Road, alongside the Railway Track  towards Allard Way is taken back by Coventry Council for the Severn Stars Industrial Estate development. This reduces the site to about 32 acres.

27th June 2001

The London Road Allotment Association appears in the Guardian Newspaper.

"Roots of revolution

All ages, all backgrounds, both sexes - the notion of the allotment as a working-class male preserve is rapidly being turned over. Chris Arnot reports

Chris Arnot
Wednesday June 27, 2001
Guardian

Even Coventry, with its skilled working-class traditions, has allotment-holders who are surprisingly mixed in terms of professional background. A visit to the city's London Road site, once the biggest spread of plots in Britain, found that among those tilling the soil were the manager of the Belgrade Theatre's Arts Alive?, a science student, a retired company director, a health and safety officer and three young journalists - one of whom was a former features editor of the News of the World. So much for stereotypes."

17th August 2007

The London Road Allotment Association is featured in the Coventry Telegraph.

A taste of the good life

By Jane Stirland

YOUNGSTERS from the age of three up to teenagers are getting a taste of the good life on allotments in Coventry. Plots at the London Road allotments in Whitley - once the preserve of old men in flat caps - are in now in hot demand for young families. June Squires, aged 45, whose husband Paul is site secretary, said: "When we first came here 18 years ago, we must have been the youngest people on the site, but over the last 12 months we have seen a real change. "We now have a lot of young families with children and lady gardeners. "I think it is down to all the publicity about eating healthy, organic food and the River Cottage programmes on TV. "Once it was all about old men sitting in their sheds. "Now the plots have swings and benches and on a good day you can smell the barbecues. "Some people even keep a few chickens. "The plots have become extensions of people's gardens and at £35 a year, including water rates, it's a very cheap way to get yourself some extra land. "People can't believe it when I tell them the cost; they think I am quoting them for a month!" For June and Paul, who live in Stoke, the allotment is a real family affair. They are joined on the plot by Paul's dad Peter Squires, aged 72, their daughter Lisa, aged 26, granddaughter Georgia Squire-Bloor, aged four, and Lisa's partner, Barry Bloor, aged 28. Then there is June's sister-in-law Sharon Totten and her daughters, twins Jessica and Rebecca, aged 11 and Sophia, aged four. June said: "The oldest plot holder is Wally Salisbury who is 85 and cycles here every day from his home in Cheylesmore. "His shed is like Aladdin's cave, whatever you need, he can supply it, along with lots of good advice. "He has been here for 60 years. "The allotments are the most beautiful place, you would never think you were near a main road, it is so quiet. "And we have lots of wildlife, birds, foxes, pheasants, rabbits, even monkjack deer." June and fellow plotholders have this week been busy cutting hedges and sprucing up the site for their first open day tomorrow. There are some vacancies at the allotments where there is a concessionary price of £20 a year for OAPs and Passport to Leisure holders. Anyone interested should call at the trading hut at the site any Saturday morning. People can also visit their website at London Road Allotments

CONDUCTED tours of the London Road allotments will take place from 9am until 3pm tomorrow.

There will be a sale of fruit, vegetables and plants grown on the site, home-made cakes, refreshments and a tombola.

Plotholder June Squires said: "Local businesses have been very good about donating prizes and we would like to say thankyou to them all."

Entry is free and there will be a donation from the sale of produce to the Coventry Telegraph's Snowball Appeal which helps children in need in Coventry and Warwickshire.

Entry to the site will be from Humber Road.

18th August 2007

The London Road Allotment Association's first Open Day is held.

22nd December 2007

Father Christmas visits the London Road Allotment Association.

 12th April 2008

The London Road Allotment Association's Seed Swap Event is held.

17th June 2008

The London Road Allotment Association is featured in the Coventry Telegraph.

Allotments - the hip and trendy place to hang out
Jun 17 2008 By Warren Manger

IMAGINE a traditional allotment and you could be forgiven for picturing old men in flat caps drinking tea in their potting sheds and listening to the radio.
Think again. Allotments are no longer outdoor old boys clubs.
They are now highly valued by families and young professionals alike as an oasis of countryside amidst the busy roads and towerblocks of city life.
They are also the front line of the green revolution which is taking place in cities and towns across the country, including right here in Coventry and Warwickshire.
In an age when environmentalists are urging shoppers to check where their food comes from and buy local produce to cut pollution, many people are deciding to go one step further and grow their own fruit and vegetables.
June Squires runs the London Road Allotments in Humber Road, Stoke, with her husband Paul.
The allotment has 157 plots, each of which is a generous one eighth of an acre, giving gardeners ample space to grow their own food.
In recent years June has noticed a sharp rise in the number of environmentally-aware youngsters who are renting plots.
"In the last 12-18 months we have had a lot of families with young children join," she said.
"I think there are two main reasons. A lot of them live in modern houses with postage stamp gardens so an allotment gives them somewhere to have a vegetable garden, flower beds and a barbecue point where they can spend a lot of time in the summer.
"But many of them also want to live a greener lifestyle. It's better to grow your own food so you know where it has come from and how fresh it is."
A quick wander around the allotments reveals just how much things have changed.
A large number of pensioners can still be seen spending their retirement happily tending their vegetable gardens but this is no longer a male refuge.
Many of the elderly couples have set up swings and slides in a corner of their plots for their grandchildren to enjoy - a sure sign that the allotments are becoming more family orientated.
On other plots children as young as five or six years-old sport huge grins as they help their parents to dig the gardens.
Nearby a lithe young professional has swapped his shirt and tie for a tracksuit to trim the hedgerow around his plot while he listens to music on his headphones.
"When we first brought our three children down here 19 years ago you didn't see any other children and only one or two women," said June.
"It's completely different now. We have a really wide range of people who use the allotments.
"There are doctors, teachers, health and safety executives, someone who works for the Belgrade Theatre and a guy who is a ranger at Coombe Abbey.
"It think that shows that growing your own fruit and vegetables is something that anybody can fit into their everyday lifestyle and enjoy."
Growing your own fruit and vegetables on an allotment or in your own garden is a great way to cut your carbon footprint.
Just a handful of the different foods on sale at your local supermarket will have been grown locally and popular British items such as tomotoes are now often imported from as far away as Holland.
One in every four lorries and vans on Britain's roads are now carrying food.
Compare that to 100 years ago when nearly everything people ate was grown within 20 miles of where they lived.
This change is bad news for the environment because transporting food now creates as much greenhouse gas as all the power stations in the UK put together.
By growing your own greens not only can you help cut pollution, you can also reduce the amount of food packaging you throw away and recycle your household waste into garden compost.
Despite growing demand London Road Allotments still have four or five plots left.
If you are interested in having your own allotment you can visit the site on Humber Road, Stoke, on Saturday mornings between 8-10am for a full tour.
For more details call the allotment on 079 4852 382.
Janet and Peter Squires, of Lower Stoke, are one of four generations of the same family who all have plots at the London Road Allotments.
The couple, both retired assembly workers, got their own plot last October after spending several years helping out on their son's.
"The allotment is very peaceful, it's like being in another world," said Janet, aged 68.
"It is so relaxing, even when you're working."
Peter, aged 72, said: "It's a very nice family environment - children can have freedom up here because it is safe for them to play without you having to worry about them."
Growing their own food is the biggest step the couple have taken towards going green but they also prefer to buy locally grown food, cutting down on pollution.
"We do a lot of our food shopping at the market from two stalls and when we go we take our own bags rather than getting new ones," said Janet.
"We have also got compost bins at home so we recycle our waste and peelings and bring them down here to use on the vegetables."
Allotments are becoming increasingly popular with young families such as Lisa Squires, Barry Bloor and their five year-old daughter Georgia.
Lisa, 27, who lives in Grafton Street, Stoke, says the allotment is a fantastic place for the family to spend time together.
"It is a nice way to get away from city life for a few hours," said the teacher, who has also been promoting gardening and digging at St Osburg's Primary School where she works.
"When you go back into town it's surprising to see so many people, it feels overcrowded.
"Georgia loves coming up here and helping out - she gets upset if she can't come."
As well as growing their own food the family try to cut their carbon footprint by avoiding imported foods.
"We do prefer to buy local grown produce if we go to the supermarket and we try to buy fruit like strawberries and blackberries only when they are in season," said Lisa.
Walter (Wally) Salisbury is something of a celebrity at the allotments after growing his own fruit and vegetables there for 56 years.
Despite being 86 years-old he still cycles to Humber Road every day from his home.
"I had three kids and I adopted another four girls. In the end I had that many kids I had to find a cheaper way to feed them and I have always been a grafter so I decided to grow the food myself," he said.
Wally now has four plots at the allotments, totalling half an acre, on which he grows everything from grapes to potatoes.
"I grow far more than I can eat myself so I give all of it away to people I meet in the street or on the bus. Everyone who comes up here can pick what they want, " he said.
"It's very popular because you can taste the difference between freshly picked fruit and vegetables and frozen."