We are capturing “Before” and “After” pictures of changes during the years – Do you have any pictures that you could send us? (don’t forget to date them!)
- Original Oak Lodge, The Square
- “After” – Replacement New Houses, The Square – built in early 1990′s
Recreation Road Allotments- Ron Shurville (SWAG), picture by Lesley Rolph
I received another history book for Christmas and the first items I read about were allotments and acres and as Spring is coming thought it an appropriate subject to write about. Originally, an acre could be any size that a team of oxen could plough in a day, until Edward I standardised the size to 40 rods long by 4 rods wide. A rod was 5.5 yards or 5.4 metres. The acre was measured by a chain invented by Edmund Gunter which was 22 yards long and was the standard length of a cricket pitch. A mile consists of 80 chains. Today’s allotments have evolved from the medieval villeins who cultivated strips of land in open fields and enjoyed common grazing rights in return for manorial service as part of their pay. These rights disappeared in the 16th century when the land began to be enclosed causing much distress for the peasants. They were compensated with an allotment of a pole or a rod in length, usually attached to their cottage. The garden and field behind my cottage were allotments as was Diana Close. Spencers Wood and Three Mile Cross have several areas of allotments and one presumes that they were allocated when the land was enclosed in the 18th and 19th centuries. They are currently held by the Parish Council who holds an annual competition for the best one. The award, in 1999, went to A Sainsbury at Three Mile Cross with D Makepeace coming second at Recreation Road.
In 1998 the annual cost was £9 and in 2001, the cost had risen to £20 and concessionss were charged at half this cost. Today, an allotment would cost £70 in London, which is the most expensive area, the dearest outside of London is £55 at Runnymede and it is £28 at Shinfield, annually.
Chickens on Ryeish Green Allotments by Lesley Rolph
Ryeish Green School had allotments at Clares Green Road where they kept chickens. There was a Jubilee oak taken from Windsor Forest in the lane leading to Recreation Road allotments opposite Wellington Court avenue which celebrated Queen Victoria’s Diamond Anniversary, in 1897 but this was taken down when the maisonettes were built there. As this is our Queen’s 60th anniversary this year we are hoping to display some memorabilia with Shinfield History at the Parish celebrations in June and would appreciate any royal historical items that we could show.
Margaret Bampton