Work Under Way To Reinstate Plots At Aldershot Road Allotments

Published on: 19 Apr, 2021
Updated on: 22 Apr, 2021

Work is under way clearing scrubland at the Aldershot Road Allotments in Westborough to reinstate plots for growers.

Ground has been cleared at the top part of the Aldershot Road Allotments in Westborough to reinstate about 30 plots.

In fact, the area being cleared was once covered in plots. They are being reinstated with preference to growers who are set to lose their plots at Bellfields as part of the Weyside Urban Village development. See story from 2020.

About 30 plots will be created here.

And all this is on the back of the fact that the Aldershot Road Allotments was a site considered for housing not so long ago. See story from 2013.

Currently, about 70 plots are in use at the Aldershot Road Allotments, the area being cleared by Guildford Borough Council will provide an extra 30 plots.

The popular Aldershot Road Allotments in Westborough.

The initial decline in plots at these allotments took place from the 1960s onwards, following a peak during the Second World War.

Indeed, there were at one time a number of other strips of land under cultivation as allotment gardens in this part of Guildford. One being what is now a grass verge along Aldershot Road just up from its junction with Northway. Another was off Worplesdon Road, near its junction today with Cumberland Avenue.

Growers on allotments often enjoy more than cultivating vegetables, fruit or flowers. They are sites where people come together and share their knowledge of horticulture and where a real sense of community prevails.

This is especially true at Aldershot Road, where new plot-holders are always made welcome.

The plot at the Aldershot Road Allotments used by pupils from nearby St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School is being made ready for this year’s planting.

St Joseph’s Catholic Primary School, which is close by, has had a plot there for several years. Currently, key growers from the allotments are getting the ground ready for pupils and their teaching staff when they get planting very soon.

The new flagpole at the Aldershot Road Allotments.

The site’s warden, Keith Lawrence, has recently put up a flagpole on one of his two plots. It has been flying the Union Flag at half-mast in honour of the late Duke of Edinburgh.

It’s planned that other flags will be flown to commemorate special events.

Site warden Keith Lawrence with his flagpole.

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