1922: Allotments
Arts & Ideas
BBC
4.2 • 599 Ratings
🗓️ 18 August 2022
⏱️ 15 minutes
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Summary
From a way of addressing the loss of common land due to the enclosures of the 18th and 19th centuries, to a means for the urban poor gainfully employed and away from drink, allotments have meant different things to different people. The Allotments Act of 1922 was an important step in defining the allotment as we know it today, and it's a fascinating window onto the social and economic tensions of the inter-war years. John Gallagher tells the story, with help from historian Dr Elsa Richardson and philosopher Dr Sophie Scott-Brown.
Producer: Luke Mulhall
Transcript
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| 0:44.0 | I'm John Galaher, and in this edition, we're continuing our series looking at aspects of life in 1922, |
| 0:51.2 | to mark the founding of the BBC in October of that year. |
| 1:10.5 | What could be more natural than an allotment? |
| 1:13.6 | In 1920, George Orwell wrote to a friend about his first experience of living down and out. |
| 1:19.6 | He'd been on his way to Cornwall when his train stopped in Plymouth. Orwell got out to change |
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