Our Story...

Winchester & District Allotment Holders Society was founded in 1907, and at its peak, the Society leased multiple sites across Winchester from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners for over 3000 members to use as allotments. We owe a great deal of thanks to the provisional Committee who worked tirelessly from 1905 to 1907 to form the Society. The Committee’s aim was to take over the land let as allotments from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, to guarantee the rent and to have longer tenancies. In order to do this, Councillor Hutchings (the provisional President), Mr Wort (the provisional Secretary), Mr Widgery (the provisional Treasurer) and the rest of the Committee needed trustees to guarantee the payment of the rent and it was Mr Bostock of Lainston and 3 other gentlemen who agreed to be guarantors: the Committee reassured the trustees that they would never have an occasion to fall back on those gentlemen to meet any liability, because he, the Chairman, believed that if they put shoulder to shoulder they could do all they wanted... The Chairman stated at the meeting held at St Maurice Hall in 1908 that he had hoped to be able to tell the allottees that they had secured allotment gardens to cultivate for as long as they wished, but the Ecclesiastical Commissioners, “were prepared to let the working man have the allotments on a 14 years’ lease …” but “if they (the Commissioners) wanted the land, the working man had to give it up in a month”. The provisional Committee did not think this was helping the working men enough so they asked the County Council for land under the Small Holdings Act who said they would be pleased to help. But it was not until 1922 that Mr Wort (still the Secretary of the Society) reported to the members that the land at Highcliffe, whose lease would expire in 1926, was to be on the market and it was at this meeting that the members agreed to the formal resolution authorising the Committee to take up a loan of £1700 (from the Corporation – the Council) to cover the cost of purchase and contingent expenses. In 1925, the Society bought the Highcliffe site from the Ecclesiastical Commissioners: the land has a covenant on it specifying that it must be used for allotments. Previously in 1911, Mr Hutchings (the President) stated at the Society’s AGM, that the time would come when they would taste the fruits of their labours in carrying on their gardens and being their own landlords and tenants, the original committee’s aim was realised when the Highcliffe site was purchased! The Society is still owned and run by its members. Each member is a single shareholder in the Society which allows them to make proposals and vote at the AGM. 

From 1955, due to a combination of reduced membership, increased rents by the Ecclesiastical Commissioners and pressure to develop allotments for housing, the Society gradually reduced in size and now the Highcliffe site is the only remaining WDAHS allotment.