Joan Humphreys, 78, of Kendal, recalls allotments
in Kendal

At one time Kendal had many areas of allotments.

These would be mainly used by people living in terraced housing where they did not have gardens of their own, and were used to provide fruit and vegetable for families.

Most of these allotments have been built over, both for housing and other developments.

At the northern end of the town there were allotments behind the County Hall where the police station now stands and Rydal Mount and Ashleigh Road off Burneside Road were both built on allotments which had fallen out of favour and where building land was at a premium.

At the southern end of town there were gardens in the area between Park Avenue and the river. Again it is now housing.

Some allotments have been preserved and, with the new enthusiasm for gardening plots, are in short supply.

Some of the best used ones are off Windermere Road and behind Underley Road. There are some very well-used ones near Sedbergh Road.

I was brought up at Preston Patrick and we had a large garden with fruit trees and we also kept hens.

I don’t remember us ever having to use artificial fertilisers on the garden. We always had a compost heap which was fed with household scraps, weeds, the tops of sprout or potato plants, etc. Once a year a load of farmyard manure would supplement this.

My father also used to make something which he called ‘tank’. This consisted of sheep droppings put into an old boiler. This was filled with cold water and after sometime make a liquid manure.