FOR our December meeting, Fiona Warin came to talk to us about allotments.

Four years ago, she passed the daunting task of being approved as a speaker by the WI and she has been entertaining many groups with her knowledgeable and amusing account of the history of allotments and of her job as Allotment Office for Cheltenham Borough Council.

It all started when she lived in Bristol and wanted an allotment.

Within three days of asking for one she got a large plot which had not been used for ten years.

In a short time she became the site representative and enjoyed managing the site.

She decided to halve the plots to make it easier for people to look after them.

Out of forty plots, twenty of them had been vacant for ten to twenty five years, within a short time she had let all the plots and had a waiting list.

This was helped by the fact that there had been TV programs about growing your own fruit and vegetables.

Fiona is now in charge of nine sites of Cheltenham allotments.

She gave a brief history of allotments from the time of the Enclosures to recent times.

In the sixteenth century land was enclosed by landlords for the grazing of sheep and so some cottagers lost their land. As more land was enclosed the poor people lost their means of survival and rioting occurred.

In 1714 the Riot Act was passed and it declared that if twelve or more people were unlawfully assembled and would not disperse, they could be arrested and were guilty of a felony, some were even deported to Australia.

The Act was not repealed until 1973.

Because of the problem of many people ending up in Poor Houses or Workhouses some land owners began to put aside areas of land where people could grow their own vegetables and between 1830 and 1890 over four hundred thousand plots were put into use.

Now Parish Councils are legally obliged to provide allotments.

Television programmes greatly influence allotment gardening, The Good Life caused an increased demand in the 1990s and with her programme on Friday evenings, Carol Kline made people think that only half an hour a week was needed to maintain an allotment.

Food scares and the organic movement have made people more aware of the value of knowing where food comes from and today allotments are in demand.

Those gardening on them have changed from elderly men to women, generally in their 30s and 40s and on some of her Cheltenham plots Fiona sees three generations of families helping to tend to their gardens.

They garden now not for economic reasons but to produce food which tastes good, for peace and quiet and for exercise.

Fiona has a very supportive husband, Roger, who not only has helped her a great deal with such things as rotavating but also produces excellent trowels which are available to buy.

Her talk was clearly audible, very informative and amusing.

The vote of thanks was given by allotment holder Robin Hickey.