It's hard to believe that just behind these houses on our right are the secret gardens
of Queen's Road allotments. Plenty of people walk, drive or sit on the bus going down Queen's
Road without any idea that they exist. Do you remember when Holly when we were when we used to
walk here a lot? I used to play here as a tile. I know you did. In and out of all the sheds.
I know. Half the allotments were all abandoned weren't they? They were all scruffy. Yeah,
they were. Covered in thorns and brambles. They used to make dens. Yes. It was as much as it is now.
I was frightened of being caught by anybody so I used to hide in the dens every time somebody came.
That's right. And do you remember the day when the dog brought you playing truant from school? Yes,
hidden a shed with a load of people. That's right. It was the one and only time I did it,
I promise. I didn't do it before. I didn't do it again. The dog was barking at the top of the
lake for some reason and I let him out and he went straight to you with a group of kids in a shed.
That's just collapsed now hasn't it with the one down on the corner. We used to hide in there as
well if people came behind the shed. That's right. And then Taffy caught me because there's a hole
there, that fence, Taffy. There's a little hole that you can get to the back of his and he caught me
once. He went mental and that's why he put that fence there. I mean I never did anything wrong.
I was just hiding in dens and apart from bunking off school obviously. It was about where that shed
was there, definitely by that tree.
Yeah, we've been doing some research about the area and this space was actually called Puffer's
Close and it used to be surrounded by allotments, acres and acres of allotments, but gradually over
the years we can tell from the maps that the housing development has generally encroached on
those allotments until we've got to this space here and one other that was behind us that used
to be called the Craddock number one allotments and we lost those to a housing development just at
the beginning of the, well it was 2001 they started to build on those. There used to be 45
allotments and we fought battles through the 80s and 90s to try and protect them but and although
Lester City Council turned down the planning applications a couple of times the developers
appealed to the Secretary of State and the inspector found in their favour eventually
because he said that there wasn't enough evidence of demand or he couldn't find enough evidence
of demand and so we did lose that battle and it was devastating. We were absolutely
overwhelmed I think by it. It was particularly hard on people like Charlie who was an old gardener
over there and he'd always been against development even though he stood to gain from it.
I think since the advent of the Friends of the Queen's Road allotments and the gradual sort of
development of working parties, social events and everything like that we're starting to change
the culture over here so people, owners are not necessarily holding on to their allotments in
the hope that they're going to be built on eventually. I mean for a start it'd be much
harder to pick off individual owners. The other thing is it means now that allotments are actually
changing hands and people are passing them on, selling them to new gardeners and you know you've
only got to look at some of the improvements where plots were derelict in the past and they're now
actually coming back into life. There's some fantastic work going on. As you know this was a
new plot to me in the spring. I took it over, it had had some clearing work done but needed a fair
bit more done but I was really quite worried that it wasn't going to look to be a good year.
We had quite a bit of rain and we had some strange temperatures and seeds weren't taking,
I was putting plants in and they weren't taking and I was beginning to get depressed and then
suddenly we we got a summer, we got a perfect summer of sun and rain and everything has gone wild
you know the the beans are getting longer and longer they're almost touching the ground
everything's swelling by the day so it's very exciting I'm thrilled to be at this stage with
the plot I wasn't expecting it but unfortunately I've set myself a standard for next year so
I'm really going to have to work at it to get anything like this.
Another role of the committee is to try and I suppose encourage a sense of community within
the the plot holders so to do that we we've had events in the winter, winter warmer we have a
summer barbecue. Yeah the summer barbecues are a good opportunity for us to socialize, get together
because you can be working on your plots and you know your neighbours, your close neighbours but
you don't get to meet other people very often during the year because you're all busy on your
plot so this is a great time to chat and find out.
We have little competitions sort of silly competitions like Scarecrow competitions
and this year it's going to be a great allotment bake-off and so those bring the allotment
gardeners together but we also have been opening the allotments to the public every
August along with the council plots opening days and this year we have 60 people come and that's
really great we get feedback from people they become aware of them and that's good for us and
we hope that you know we can develop this even further in the future.
Part of the unique landscape of Queen's Road allotment site includes an array of old garages,
workshops, greenhouses and sheds. Unlike the usual buildings you would expect to see on other
allotment sites, many of which do not allow buildings to be erected. They seem to be melded
into the undergrowth each with its own story to tell. We hope that when these amazing mackled
buildings crumble to the ground they're not all just replaced with normal standard sheds.
Have you ever seen this building before Ted? It's absolutely incredible look at the crich windows.
Oh they're the ones that special in Leicestershire. Yeah, aren't they brilliant. The history behind
this shed is that the plot was worked by a man called Mohammed and he was either
attacked I think he was a taxi driver I thought he was a postman but he was I think he was a taxi
driver and every few days he used to bring a handful of bricks here until he had enough bricks to
build this structure and it's quite a substantial structure it goes back quite a way. Inside he
had tool storage and a shelter and he also had a fireplace. How long did it take him to bring the
bricks? I don't know but Wendy can remember him building it she said it was there's no foundations
he just piled the bricks up and there are a few cracks but if you come over here inside here is a
wood burning fireplace wood burning chimney breast with a fireplace in it right and apparently what
he used to do was in February March and April he used to keep a small fire going yeah and the heat
would come out here to prevent the apple blossom freezing so that it would actually increase the
propagation of the apples on this tree so it's deliberate so it's deliberate it's not artistic
it's not artistic it's a bit Heath Robinson it's very similar to the sort of ideas that were done
in orange trees at big council estates yeah look at that little higgledy-piggledy window as well.
One of the many unique things about Queens Road allotments is the fact that not all the
allotment holders are used in their plots for traditional allotment activities as the plots
are all privately owned people are less restricted in the activities they can undertake.
I use the allotments as an extension of my house I suppose you know kids ride the bikes up and down
I've rebuilt an Austin 7 car in the garage and used it to test it on these little green lanes.
1937 Austin 7 bought it about six years ago as a non-runner and I've restored it to a running
order I wouldn't say perfect decorative order but just running order and 1937 so it survives.
So were there being a lot of these looking about?
It would have been yeah yeah this was the most popular car and I think Austin 7 is
when it first came out one of the most popular cars ever made and all those people had motorbike
and side cars sold them to buy these because it's the cheapest car you could buy.
This is one of my allotment activities yes yes mending cars.
I've got bees on the side here I've got one hive at the moment and bees are good for the pollination
of all the fruit and believe it or not Queens Road allotment area is one of the best honey
collecting zones for the the bees for the pollen for the nectar everything else there's lots of
lime trees around and there's lots of a variety of flowers throughout the year.
At the moment the bees are sitting quietly because it's the August area so what's happened
at some point is there'll be a swarm. Swarm comes out of the hive and they'll basically go up to
the nearest point of tree or a bush somewhere and they'll just sit there with the queen waiting for
the queen not the queen but the bee gatherers who have found a location to sit for the night.
So one of the things as a beaker we have to either catch that swarm if it's not ours or
manage the hive a lot better by subdividing it before it actually swarms but we often get
called out to do swarms and we can do that very simply by pulling the the bees into a box once
we got to that site and gather them from that point. Right my aim now is to pick this up
and bang all the bees in there just like that you will smell a pheromone that smells like
pear drops and all the bees will be giving that signal off to say hello we're here come and help us
so the aim of the bottom floor is to attract them to come in so these are all flying around
like so and they'll start signaling to say we're downstairs
and you'll notice they all start walking up the hill if you look down at the the white pad
they all start walking up the hill to go into the hive now the aim now is just to leave it
that's all there is to it one new hive for the future hopefully next year 25 to 50 pound of honey
summer suddenly arrived in the guise of a heat wave much to the relief of the allotment is
there's no mains wall to supply on the allotment so it's up to the ingenuity of the allotment
holders to make sure they have a supply of water during these very rare hot spells
water's not particularly a problem unless really we are without rain four weeks on end which is
not that often there is a motley arrangement of contraptions containers and so on and we kind of
eke out the water thinking if the drought comes what will we do but actually the drought never
comes so we manage okay no no i've got containers full because the hot days have been followed by
torrential rain which has just filled them up again so it's probably pretty perfect lovely hot
weather torrential rain which just waters everything job done this well it's been dug up
where is it 1996 and i dug all myself down to the bottom with a ladder
my mum my mrs. after me out of my door they call the settlement underneath and
full up with bricks and this and that and dug up and break it up right up to the top and that's
what i've got yeah well we haven't got water on this these allotments i've never had there is a
stream across the back here which some people get water from like rain next door he's got a little
pump and he pumps water across but it's like it's like literally a dribble and it takes him hours
when i run out of water i bring it over in my pickup truck in some of these drums i put on the
back of my pickup truck i personally think that the as an allotment group here we should do something
about trying to get water because it does put off new people if they find they plant new seeds and
everything and they they dry up and they they don't progress and i think these allotments would be
far more productive if we did have water on the site the trouble with that is how you organize it
the water comes with the weather the weather gets good the water becomes a problem and i guess
everybody here is just battling with that problem because i'm wondering i mean we've got a big cube
of water over there but i know that we use four to six gallons a day in the greenhouse so
it's not going to last for an awful long time
when the water runs out really the only thing that can be done is to bring water from home
which i just love the idea of using all that petrol and effort in order to keep a few few
vegetables going can be a problem yeah
it's not been bad lately we've had a bit of rain well a lot of rain in a very short time
after the drought which is all right you know every cloud has a silver lining but it does mean
as well as encouraging the plants it encourages the weeds and of course the slugs
right on the top of the list are slugs i have a reaction when i see a slug the hardest
one to deal with the slugs but i think you have to the pigeons love brassicas so you
got to net them for the pigeons i also use a an oil there but i don't know if it works very well
it doesn't seem to want to turn the right way oh and the butterflies of course this year particularly
large numbers of butterflies so if i hadn't net up my brassicas every day possibly twice a day i'd
have to check well not twice a day i'd have to check regularly and remove the eggs off every
leaf in every plant which is just not viable so that environment is very expensive i think
but it lasts a long while and it does a job and so definitely it's the slugs and the slugs
are relentless i bet you under here and i just cut them in two which is rather gross but i think
it's quick for the slugs and i can't leave them you can cope with them after a certain time i think
much better than whenever you're just planting but certainly they destroyed three quarters of my
portion of harvest this year i i think i think my vote would go for uh exterminating slugs worldwide um and i really don't much care how
i've been out here 20 years so it's changed quite a bit when i came down originally it was all old
boys and if you want to know what it was like then you want to talk to one of the old boys like phil
well my name philip william cooper uh well now i've owed me but i did live in 220 queens road
i bought that place i think in 1983 something like that i paid i paid 36 000 for it including the
allotment there was allotment with it uh that's when i met taffy johnson or adan johnson his proper name
i spoke to him today still alive he's in his 90s now uh he's uh living away now but
tough was the man and of course i was friends of him of him and uh that way i knew everybody on the
allotments and like you say when i go down there now as i do often uh the place is more or less
the same uh there was i remember there was a guy up there named philip phil and lived up near the
craddock and he kept me had a pigeons up there and we used to go up there and shoot the rats around
the pigeons and yeah we had some good fun up there tough was the man he he he really really looked
after that place cared about it loved it and of course we loved the birds the wild birds we
yell around us and finches and god knows what used to be done
as far as i've been saying now then allotments will never be sold i think i can't see because i'll never
sell mine never is a long long time but while i live i don't never build on it because i'll never
sell my plot for building and when i die my sons will have it and they know my wishes i like to
see the wildlife there ain't a lot left you don't see many gold finches and linux and things down
there now but at least there's there's somewhere for them if if if they did ever come back
so
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