Billesley Lane Allotments

Billesley Lane Allotments currently has 24 tenants who come from a wide variety of backgrounds. We have a high proportion of women gardeners, and children are often seen helping on the allotments.

Buildings

Since our site was downsized (see History), most tenants have had to start a new plot and have done a great job getting it into shape. We love growing fruit, vegetables and flowers, we love the site and we enjoy being part of a community of gardeners.

Upon arrival at the allotments, possibly the first thing you notice is the brick shed. This was built as a firewatchers' hut in the Second World War. We now use it as a shop where we sell various gardening sundries to tenants and, in season, different seeds.

The green shed is our communal store. Because there are no sheds on the site, this building is used by plot holders to store their tools. When our site was reduced in size in 2005 (see History), we were promised a new pavilion by the City Council with a meeting room, storeroom and disabled toilet. This has so far failed to materialise...

Grounds

The Billesley Lane Allotment site is located on the corner of Billesley Lane and Southlands Road, with its gate allowing access from the latter.

Leading from the gate is a narrow track running parallel to Coldbath Brook, which runs through Honey Valley, joining the River Cole at Sarehole Mill. The brook is sometimes polluted by road runoff water or mis-plumbed houses on local roads. By the time it leaves the site to enter the golf course it has cleaned itself sufficiently to support pollution-intolerant invertebrates.

The plots on the right as you walk from the main gate are numbered 1 to 13. These plots are half the size of the originals, approximately 100 square yards, in order to accommodate as many plot holders as possible. The City had to create a new new category for this size of plot.

There have been allotments on this site since at least the early 1920s when council records began, but it is quite possible that they were here during World War I when the Defence of the Realm Act allowed land to be cultivated to help the war effort, an early version of World War II’s Dig for Victory.

The Lost Allotments

At the end of the site you can see how much allotment land was lost in 2005. Moseley Golf Club have removed a hedge line and all the topsoil to obliterate all sign of previous allotments. Their planning application was to convert it into a golf practice area; there was to be a green in the far right corner and three tees with drives of various lengths, the longest of 150 yds at the furthest point of the old site. This has since been refused. [* link to article(s)]

The original planning application had a large belt of trees along this post and wire fence to protect allotment holders from stray golf balls and to enhance the conservation value of the area. This tree belt seems to have been dropped in the most recent application; for reasons unbeknownst to us. We had left land beside the rear fence as we anticipated it would become heavily shaded as the trees grew.