The Allotment
Eastmoor Community Garden is located on Park Lodge Lane , a Wakefield District Council Allotment site close to Wakefield City centre.
The site is one of the largest in the district, containing 130 individual council plots and 16 mini plots managed by Incredible Edible Wakefield.
The allotment owes its existance to the shortage of food during the first world war and the sites proximity to the railway. The need to grow more food meant that land alongside railway tracks was brought into use as allotment space and was often cultivated by railway workers.
In 1919 the land settlement facilities act made metropolitan borough councils allotment authorities for the first time and in 1922 the allotments act was introduced specifying that plot size, that they should be used mainly for growing fruit and vegetables and also providing greater security to allotment holders, requiring them to be compensated if plots were withdrawn.
As with most allotment sites, Park Lodge Lane’s fortunes have risen and fallen in line with the economic fortunes of the country.
With the rising cost of fuel and food, and increasing uncertainty over food security and provinence, allotments in the city are once again in high demand with over 1000 people currently on waiting lists.
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