Digging for Victory on the Grounds

This is a short piece about local history of the St Margarets Trust Grounds. It may be of interest to those that live on the Grounds.

World War II Dig for Victory Poster

During World War II and in its immediate aftermath the RAF and USAAF took aerial photographs of Twickenham and Richmond, including the St Margarets Trust Grounds. Looking at these photographs (I show one taken in 1947) the direct impact of the war can be seen in the three buildings on the Grounds that were destroyed (23 and 25 The Avenue and 2 St Georges Road). In the immediate locality, the destruction of St Margarets House to the north of the Grounds, built by the Earl of Kilmorey in 1852 and occupied by the Royal Naval Female School, provides dramatic evidence of the damage caused by enemy bombing.

Aerial photograph of the St Margarets Grounds. Photograph was taken by the RAF on 29 May 1947. The photograph is orientated with south (the A316 and the Chertsey roundabout) at the top. At the bottom, part of the Isleworth Ait is seen near Gordon House. St Margarets House is just north (below) the Trust Grounds. The allotments can be seen at the northern end of the Lake Grounds and (less clear) the southern part of the River Grounds. Image raf_cpe_uk_2112_v_5060 © Historic England. To access web page with zoomable image click on the legend title.

Closer inspection of the photographs shows a less obvious change due to the war. In the Lake Grounds, in what is now the Spinney, one can see allotments. Similar cultivation is also evident in the River Grounds, in the area adjoining Cassilis House (24 St Peters Road). In a second, lower altitude, photograph of Twickenham Bridge, also taken in 1947, the allotments can be clearly seen on the grounds at the back of Cassilis House.

Aerial photograph of Twickenham Bridge. Photograph taken 16 July 1947. Apart from the low levels of traffic on the bridge, of interest to this blog are the allotments at the back of Cassilis House on St Peter's Road. Image EAW008241© Historic England. To access web page and zoomable image click on the legend title.

During World War II there was a massive campaign (Dig for Victory) to encourage people to grow their own fruit and vegetables to provide much needed food for the population. Parks and gardens were converted into allotments. The aerial photograph shows many allotments in the gardens of the abandoned St Margarets House. It is estimated that around 1.4 million allotments were created during the war; in addition to providing extra food important in a time of rationing, they also enabled people to demonstrate their patriotism.

It is not surprising that part of the Trust Grounds were laid out for cultivation during the wartime emergency. The Lake Grounds committee received proposals from residents to create allotments over the summer of 1940, one of the arguments being that if they did not then the local council might commandeer the Trust Grounds for public allotments. In a special meeting of the 13th October it was agreed to allow five allotments adjacent to 44, 46 and 48 Ailsa Road, with an annual rent of 10/- a year on the proviso that the allotments would only be allowed for the duration of the war (at the time the annual subscription for a house in these grounds was £2). In subsequent meetings the number of allotments was increased.

In 1945 there was no move to get rid of the allotments and in 1947 the rent increased to 15/- a year. While at several subsequent meetings there were discussions about whether to close them, it was not until November 1960 that there was a referendum of households that determined that they should cease.

Fortunately the Lake Grounds kept detailed records of who rented an allotment for much of this period. It can be seen that the number of allotments grew to a steady state of around nine (Table below). A total of 31 Lake Grounds households cultivated an allotment at some stage in their existence, as well as 2 residents of the Avenue Grounds and the gardener.

Rental of allotments in the St Margarets Lake Grounds 1940-1957. The table is based on the rental income that the Lake Grounds received for allotments until 1956/7 after which less complete records are available. The rent was originally 10/- a year, increasing to 15/- in 1947. Households appear to have rented single, double or half allotments. The house number is that used by the Lake Grounds Committee to note contributions, in one case (0) this is uncertain. Two residents of the Avenue Grounds and the gardener also rented allotments. In all cases when the rental of an allotment ceased it was determined if this was due to death or departure of the individual, in two cases (1 and 40) this was the case, indicating that most people gave up allotments for other reasons. One owner (43) had their allotment temporarily taken away as a result of not tending it. During this period houses 37 and 43 changed hands and both the old and new owners rented allotments. Some residents paid for several years at a time, when known this is taken into account. However, it is possible that some ‘double plots’ represent two years rental of a single plot.

There are no records of the establishment of River Grounds allotments, and it is not clear who gave permission for them to be set up. There was no River Grounds Committee until the late 1940s, and there is no indication in correspondence or meeting minutes that the Trustees were involved. There appear to have been 2 or 3 allotments and for much of the time one or two of them were cultivated by a resident of the Avenue Grounds. The 1961 Annual General Meeting abolished the allotments, and the ground was levelled and seeded.

The trustees were not involved in many discussions around the allotments. There is one complaint to the trustees from an individual attempting to cultivate an allotment in the River Grounds whose gardener was ordered by another resident to stop. The main war-related issues that were discussed in trustee meetings concerned compensation for the Lake Grounds’ gate and fence that had been removed for scrap metal, dealing with buildings that had been requisitioned and the replacement of Grounds’ committee members that had been called away on government business. The trustees were very depleted in numbers (at one point after the war there was only one trustee, who acted as Chair, secretary and treasurer, and had to organise the election of new trustees). In the Lake Grounds they had other priorities, helping set up a committee, dealing with complaints about the school and persuading residents to look after the grounds that had fallen into a ‘disgraceful state’.

The presence of allotments on the Grounds during the emergency of World War II is not surprising. What is more surprising is that they survived around 20 years. However, as many gardeners would testify they will have provided not only food, but recreation, exercise and a sense of purpose. Their history shows that the Grounds have been used down the years in many different ways, for sport, for recreation and for growing food.

I would like the thank the Trustees of the St Margarets Trust Grounds for kind permission to access the records of historic meetings. Aerial photographs can be found in the Historic England Aerofilms Collection. Hyperlinks to the original photographs are in the photo titles.