Cultivating the City and Its Citizens: The Creation of Corporation Allotments in York

2008 marked the centenary of the 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act, a piece of legislation which had a considerable impact on the landscape of urban and rural Britain. The 1908 Act entrusted local authorities with a new obligation towards its citizens: to provide allotment gardens where they were desired by residents. This responsibility fostered a new relationship between authorities and the local populace, as access to land was demanded, negotiated and discussed at a variety of levels. This process was a particular feature in the creation of corporation owned and operated allotment gardens in York. The campaign for allotments in the city also reveals the wider debates of social reform which were highly prominent in York at the beginning of the twentieth century. Issues of poor housing, unemployment and the wider condition of the working classes of York were reflected through the movement for allotments. Whilst allotment gardens represented a much-needed and important resource for residents in the deprived areas of the city, local politicians and councillors viewed the sites as significant tools for social reform. As allotments developed in York, the roles of both tenants and corporation were discussed and rethought, setting the foundations for the modern relationship between citizens and the local authority. Examining the history of the development of this public service, politically and socially, this article will explore how allotment gardens were used to cultivate both the city and the citizens in the first two decades of the twentieth century.