Wendover Ashbrook Allotment Association is 100 Years Old Records show that allotment gardening on the Ashbrook site started more than 100 years ago. The site, which at that time was owned by the R o t h s c h i l d ’s Estate and used for market gardening, became available for purchase.
line, with only two houses f r o n t i n g Wendover Road - these being the old ‘Rothschild’ cottages, which had presumably h o u s e d workers on the original market garden site.
The first meeting of an organised group of potential future owners, possibly existing tenants of the Rothschilds, was held on 12 February 1920 at the King & Queen PH, involving 10 people. Probably this kind of venture was an effect of WW1. A Secretary was already in post. The meeting named the Association, elected a Chairman, resolved to produce a list of investors and agreed to approach the landowner, the Hon. Charles Rothschild with the intention of buying the site. By June 1920 the investors had raised £685 by purchase of shares in the Association. The sale was agreed with Charles Rothschild at £600, equivalent now to about £34,000. The sale was not completed until December 1922. The Association was formally registered under the auspices of an ‘Agricultural Organisation’ under the ‘Industrial and Provident Societies Act of 1893’, on 3rd August 1920. The first rents were collected in March 2021. Tenants bemoaned initial rents of 8d (3.3p) per pole. The charge in 2020 is £2 – a 60x increase and in line with inflation over the period. Initial plans lack detail, but show about 10 acres north of the old Halton railway
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Wendover News June 2020
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