We are delighted to see that the fence at Oxford Spires Academy has been extended to go down the entire length of the hedge bordering our site.

Our warmest congratulations go to Ellen and Etienne (Plot A25b) who have won the coveted “Best Under-35 Allotment of the Year” award at the Oxford and District Federation of Allotments Associations awards’ evening. This is in competition with all of the other allotment associations in the City of Oxford. Ellen received the shield at the West Oxford Allotments on 28th October.

Other entries included Cliff and Annie who were awarded a certificate and were highly commended. The category in which they were entered is shrouded in mystery.

James and Christine were also awarded a certificate and were highly commended in the “Newcomers” category.

Barracks Lane Allotments came a creditable fourth overall.

Ellen receiving the award from Wendy Skinner Smith

These maps are taken from the archive of Ordnance Survey maps held at the National Library of Scotland. They chart the gradual development of the area.

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This is an image from Google Earth taken in 1945. It shows the allotments having spilled over into the area now occupied by the student flats, as well as a significant area of the golf course. This is part of the “Dig for Victory” campaign of the Second World War.

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This wider image shows the whole of Florence Park being under cultivation.

These are photographs taken by Henry Taunt (1842 – 1922). He began taking photographs in 1860. He travelled widely through the county, and beyond to neighbouring counties and to London. In 1889 he rented out Canterbury House (which he later re-named Riviera) and built a workshop at the back of the property. The house is on Cowley Road, just south of the Glanville Road junction, and has a blue plaque commemorating Taunt’s time there.

These are a few of the hundreds of images of Taunt’s photographs on the Historic England website; they are also available, including as high density images, at Oxfordshire History Centre and other County libraries

With 14000 images surviving there are many of the area around his home.

Possibly Taunt’s best-known picture. Children playing ducks and drakes; in an old sheep wash at Barracks Lane, Cowley Marsh, in July 1914 (a month before the start of the First World War). East Oxford had been developed from fields into a suburb since the 1850s and this stream now formed part of the city boundary. These are two of relatively few photographs where children appear as the subject rather than as a decoration or added interest. In the background are men in military uniform playing golf.

The shepherd and his dog standing in a field opposite Riviera, the home of Henry Taunt. The sheep are standing where the Regal Community Centre now stands.

Southfield Farm. Looking into the farmyard through an opened gate toward a stone barn with a weatherboard and tiled hipped roof with outbuildings attached. This is where Southfield flats are now situated.

Looking towards the Cowley Road from Taunt’s house

Looking across from the tower of St Kenelm”s Church, Cowley, with open fields between Cowley and the city.

Henry Taunt outside his home. He rented this house Canterbury House in 1889, later changing its name to Riviera. Notice also a man on a very long ladder leaning against the house.

The Boundary stone on Cowley Marsh, with golfers in the distance

Distant view of Cowley from Lye Hill looking down to the stile.

A view of Cowley Road towards Riviera, featuring a man with a pram, and a man with a milk churn.

A view towards Cowley

Barracks Lane, Cowley, Oxford, Oxfordshire. A gentleman and is dog standing on the country lane outside Cowley. The barracks of the 43rd and 52nd Foot Regiments of the Oxfordshire and Buckingham Light Infantry, after which the lane was named, nearby in 1877.

Barracks Lane, Cowley, Oxford, Oxfordshire. Sergeant Major Jacobs standing next to a ditch running alongside Barracks Lane in Cowley. The barracks were built in 1877 for the 43rd and 52nd Foot Regiment of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light who resided there until 1952.

View of the rear of Taunt’s house Riviera. The photographer would have been sited near to Barracks Lane.

A large group of people gather around a biplane that had landed on land near what is now Cowley Marsh playing fields.

Taken from Lye Hill looking towards the Barracks.

Barracks Lane, Cowley, Oxford, Oxfordshire. Looking west down a grassy path near the barracks, with a stone marker and benchmark on the right.

A view  of the Cowley Road Hospital; it was built in 1863-5 as the Oxford City Workhouse, designed to hold 330 inhabitants. It was taken over during the First World War for the treatment of war casualties. It was closed in 1981 and has since been demolished.

Barracks Lane, Cowley, Oxford, Oxfordshire. Looking up the lane, towards a woman,  from the bottom of Sand Hill.

View of the pool or stream used for sheep washing

View from SS Mary and John Church tower looking toward the city

Many thanks to a band of helpers who were able to line the sides of the polytunnel with wood chippings. The group included Liz, Pam, Stephen, Dave, Rebecca, Christine and James. 

We have another much larger pile of wood chippings; these are going to cover the picnic area at the top of the hill.

Wood chippings now surround the polytunnel

A group of wise heads considering the next steps with the polytunnel

The water has been turned off on-site until the spring.

As part of their 100th anniversary celebrations The Oxford and District Federation of Allotment Associations have published a book entitled “A Growing Concern. It is available from the Museum shop in the Town Hall, priced £6.00

Its authors Phil Baker and Wendy Skinner Smith draw on contributions from the constituent associations; our own Stephen Pegg wrote in the book this piece about Barracks Lane.

BARRACKS LANE ALLOTMENTS

Both fields of BLA have been sites of activity since ancient times, with a Roman pottery kiln on the boundary to the east and a late medieval quarry a stone’s throw to the south. The heavy clay, sandier in some areas, has been cultivated or used as a hayfield for centuries; two undated aerial photos show allotment plots extending north up on to what is now the Golf Club and south on to The Spires playing fields, probably because of wartime requirements. Links Allotments (as we were originally called) came into being during World War II then split from Bartlemas Close in 2012, later to create its own constitution and new name.

It is a pleasant very open site of about 4.5 acres and, with college woods, school playing fields and a golf course on three sides, has a rural feel, especially with regard to voracious muntjac, vandalous badgers and the strange scream of vixens late dusk. From a perusal of the records, it is clear that demographics have changed greatly : we now have more single persons, women, young married couples and plots shared by Associate Members. Some changes reflect a general reorientation of allotments to their community – we regularly welcome young children from a local school into a thinly–wooded area set aside for them. Cultivation techniques range from fluttering miles of Mypex to altitudinous raised beds (a 1:15 slope means bottom plots can get very wet after storms).

Following some years of inertia, we are now enjoying a very active period; there is a waiting list and our five or so working parties a year get ‘stuck in’. Projects for this year include a recreational seating area and…The Polytunnel. Standards are high –  though not as demanding as in the 50’s and 60’s when meeting minutes mention posses of committee members visiting prospective allottees at home to inspect the state of their gardens! Notes from other meetings include : (1945) Chairman’s pears have been pilfered (1970) Mr and Mrs F. (who now have the neatest plot on site) sent a stern letter (1985) Mr H. has been found sleeping in his shed again (1990) Committee is not sure whether M. is allowed her geese.

Both ‘A’ and ‘B’ Fields are rich in memories, most of which are passed on between moans about the weather and a cup of tea. The Shed, for example, a big breeze-block affair of the 60’s which stored everything and up to 20 years ago featured the shop selling potatoes, onion sets and bagged-up chemicals (thankfully replaced by organics, bar the odd sprinkle of Growmore) now replaced by The Container, painted a nice shade of woodland green. Some plotholders live on in the folklore: Mary S., who famously found uses for vast quantities of black knicker-elastic (still being dug up) in all her allotment activities; Margaret C., whose love of animals drove her to distraction when a member chased a pheasant intending to impale it with his fork. M.’s sympathies were with the bird. She pursued the Greek gentleman all round the field threatening him with hers. A policeman had to be summoned to convince M. of the ill-advised nature of homicide.

Remembering and celebrating a tradition of cultivation in this place, we look forward to continuing our stewardship.

 

Barracks Lane Allotment Committee Meeting Minutes

Meeting Sunday 15^thSeptember 2019

3-5pm

The Orchard

Contents

1. Attendance
2. Minutes
3. Finances
4. Membership
5. AGM
6. ODFAA 24^thSeptember/ Lease B-field
7. Poly tunnel layout/maintenance/allocation
8. Plot Inspections (Autumn)
9. Orchard Tree Management
10. Memorial Plates
11. Paths
12. AOB- Wendy House/ Date of next meeting

1. Attendance

Liz Bentley               (LB)  Association Secretary  (Plot A28)

Stephen Pegg            (SP)  Field Secretary

James Doyle             (JD)  Committee Member     (plot A39)

Pam Wilson             (PW)  Treasurer                     (Plot A22f)

Rebecca Mead         (RM)  Committee Member     (Plot A16)

Jane Olorenshaw    (JO)   Committee Member

Apologies:

David Mead            (DM)  Committee Member

Matt Fry                  (MF)  Membership Secretary  (Plot A37)

Megan Harcourt    (MH) Poly-tunnel Co-ordinator

2. Minutes dated 8^thJuly 2019

Risk assessment forms put together by Corinne Prescott are excellent and have been used for all the working parties. SP still needs to talk to Mahmood about water usage. Doug has completed the tree felling in Forest school. Three six-seater benches will be ordered and delivered in October. Try to find someone to build a BBQ next spring.

3. Finances (PW)

Bank balance is £6026.52. Open Day raised £80. Invoices from Council (£140 twice a year) including the Oriel College one again; PW to contact Emma Taylor again.

PW reported leak to Thames Water again. RM to ask Franco to look at the two taps that are dripping near the bottom of the site.

Decided that we should keep the membership fees the same as last year(full-plot £55.00 per annum, with a half-plot at £27.50 and a quarter-plot fee of £13.75).

Skip hire: PW has two quotes but was decided that we postpone getting a skip until spring and then clear the Forest school area.

4. Membership (MF via email)

Membership news is we still have one-half plot empty, and a whole load of people emailing since the open day, though I still need to process them.
Water news is that it was definitely still leaking at the Thames Water side stopcock at the end of August. It also looked like there might be a very slow leak on the plot somewhere. Not sure how we pin that down.

5. AGM

Proposed date of AGM Thursday 7^thNovember at The Regal. PW to book room.

Committee needs to give 21 days’ notice of AGM date, place and agenda by email and in writing on the noticeboard.

JD proposed that we should try to organise an event that would give people an opportunity to talk about their successes and failures. An Evening Exchange in the Poly-tunnel next April/May time. JD to approach people on site to gauge interest.

6. ODFAA 24^thSeptember/ Lease B-field

Meeting on the 24^thSeptember to discuss the draft copy of the Lease.

Lease for B-field still not complete; golf course is still discussing their lease with Magdalen College and cannot give us the sentence we need until Magdalen College get back to them.

We need completed Risk assessments for Forest school for Megan and Lucy; SP to email Lucy and Megan about RA’s and insurance.

Grants from the Council have been announced. We applied for £700 for water harvesting for the poly-tunnel and we will get half of it. This will be ratified at meeting.

SP circulated OCC allotment rules; Committee to send comments before meeting.

7. Poly tunnel layout/maintenance/allocation

Put two paths in poly tunnel with beds in the middle; woodchip the paths.

Wood for staging would be about £400; poly-plotters to decide if they would like staging.

Potentially 4-5 poly-plots currently available but need to check with MH. LB to email allotment holders about availability. PW to email MH about poly-plot fees in November. Fees are £12 per year from 1^stJanuary to 31^stDecember.

8. Plot Inspections (Autumn)

SP plans to do plot inspections with MF in mid-October. Need to give at least 14 days’ notice of plot inspections.

9. Orchard Tree Management

JD has arranged for Louise Allen, a professional pruner, to come and assess the trees in the Orchard this afternoon. Suggested we allocate space in Forest school for bonfires to burn excess wood but they would be Committee organized bonfires.

10. Memorial Plates

Two brass plates will cost £50; to put on the planters or benches

11. Paths

JD volunteered to be “path monitor”. Plot holders are responsible for the path to the left when facing the central path.

12. AOB- Wendy House/ Date of next meeting

Wendy House needs to be put together more securely.

LB to email everyone about apples in the Orchard. PW to contact Tiddly Pommes at the end of September to collect any remaining apples.

Date of next meeting Sunday 13^thOctober to discuss AGM.

Henry Taunt (1915)

Leigh or Lye Hill and the Moors beyond are among the last of the picturesque paths from Cowley Marsh, but its wild solitary beauty is going and in time will be gone. Lye Hill is at its best now the great Elms are in their glory, in a few years the tale of the winter storms or the woodman’s axe will mar or sweep them all away, and one of the charms of the stroll here will have disappeared.

Over to the stile on the east side of Cowley Marsh, now devoted to Golf; or along the green lane, Mud Lane as it is in wet weather, which leads also to this stile where a great branch of a tree has been used to form the top rail, looking as if all impediments possible are put there to prevent easy access, if this is so, it is too bad, as the path has existed from time immemorial. The stile is within the Oxford boundary, which winds round with the little stream that trickles along the bottom of the valley, and here is the happy hunting ground for many a youngster who makes his or her way from Cowley Marsh. From the very stile its charms begin, as the path between the rye growing in the field, and the hedge with its overshadowing elms, rises the Hill. Below, round the stream, are Aspens, Aspen Poplars as they are often termed, they belong to that order; with their tremulous leaves, some are in their decadence evidently, as the top branches are dead and stand out gaunt against the sky, and a little way along the stream is the sheep-washing place, now seemingly quite deserted, grown up and never used. Beyond this is Sand Hill, where the varied coloured sand crops out in places, there have been quarries here as the rough ground shows, and the Barracks further on looking over from the hill is partly built with the stone, this is now a continuation of the March Golf ground, making up the eighteen holes, but it really was part of Bullingdon Green.

But we are running away from our path and must trail back along the links to the stile again. There is waste ground between path and hedge over the stile and this was used at one time by the lads to play Banker and other pence games, until rightly stopped by the police. It is a sunny spot in summer, pleasant and bright, and there is many a trace of children’s play in the growing grass, and we were sorry to say also in the standing rye. Two or three children are busy here now making Daisy and Buttercup chains; making a split in the stalks, and drawing the next flower through to the head, all for the dressing up of a toy horse they have brought with them. One of the lassies has bright golden ringlets hanging down her back, but the youngest was in tears at some unkind treatment she had received from another of her companions. It is a pleasant climb up the hill, and we look back to the Marsh Village and Temple Cowley, but these are quickly left behind and hidden by the rise of the hill, all but a few houses on the Barrack’s road (how much these villages have grown in the last ten years, and are still extending.) The Barracks stand out from Lye Hill over the second part of the Golf ground, right on the top of the neighbouring hill all part of the old Bullingdon Green; in front of us is Shotover Hill, fairly clear with its crest of trees against the morning sky; but there are no signs to-day of the Chilterns to the South, they are hidden in the haze. How lovely everything looks, the rain and the morning mist and now the sunshine have brought all the vegetation forward although it is only May; ah! and the Hawthorns have their May also, a grand wealth of flower this year, covering the boughs and actually hiding the leaves, and filling the air with its faint scent, while the giant elms line along the hedge-row, until the descent of the hill is reached. Then the stream is met again, still the Oxford boundary, extended here at the last enlargement of the City; but just after the descent into the valley a smaller side stream runs in from a depression turning to the north, and the boundary follows this, up by the Warneford Hospital and beyond. It is not everybody that recognizes the fact that it is the debris of this water-washed valley that has filled up the lake, which in ancient times existed where Cowley Marsh and its adjacent fields are now; the lake becoming a Marsh, while the forest which covered the hills at a later date, was cut down, and the stream has dwindled until now there is only a trickle compared to the large volume of water that carried down the sand and clay which filled up the old lake. Yet curiously, the little stream to-day is, in its small way, doing exactly as its giant forefather did, for where there is a little pot-hole in it there you will see at the upper part a small amount of debris, brought down by the little stream just as the big water did in the earlier geological times.

What a beauty there is in nature, left to herself and quite wild. No stiff lines, or inartistic squares, she dots down a little bush and covers them with blossom, a few reeds or rushes and an odd tree and lo! A picture, such as few artists could invent. There is not one picture only along these moors, but one after another; someday they will be all swallowed up and then our scenes will convey a faint idea to those who follow us of what they were like. Here is one from the path at the turn, looking back down the valley, along the moor at the lower part; the next is looking the other way up, over the Headington Moor.  Alder trees rise from the streamlet’s edge where the little northern valley and stream from the left join the larger one, by the Hawthorn covered with May blossom; they seem always to like their roots in the water, but these are all there are. Willows grow up the side valley and bigger trees on the hill side where it gradually closes up as it ascends. Some day there will be nothing but houses along its ridge where now the good folk who are beating the city boundary are congregated, for since this picture was taken, gardens, allotment, and cultivation have begun to extend. These are invariably around Oxford, the predecessors of streets or outskirt residences, which grow over them, and turn the country into town. But unfortunately many of the new houses are garish erections of red brick, and thus the suburbs of Oxford are a decided decadence from the more charming older part of the place, as seen from the hills.

Over the Alders in our scene, up the main valley, is the first encroachment of cultivation as a group of rough outbuildings with a few chimneys from some houses beyond right on the top of the hill shows, the valley winds somewhat to the right from this standpoint and loses itself beyond the little stump of hay, but the foreground is quite rural, and one can note how the path extends wider where there is a marshy place by the streamlet, and beyond where it crosses the side ripple between the bushes. Here the birds sing, Larks, and Blackbirds, and Thrushes, and Yellow-hammers and Finches, and others in endless variety; while now and then a rustle in the grass draws the eye to where a handsome brown grass-snake is speeding out of the way. There used to be many more of these in this district, we have had them in our own garden down in the Marsh many times, but they are growing fewer year by year. They have but little intelligence; we have had some who would set up their backs to be rubbed, but that is all we could ever seem to teach them in captivity. They are quite harmless, and their only defence seems to be the unpleasant oil which they exude from beneath their scales, but when they get used to anyone and are not frightened, they rather like to be handled, and do not resent it or become unpleasant. In hot weather they are very fond of lying in the water with their heads out of it, or curled round on a sunny bank fast asleep. They are very prettily marked at times, and are different from the black Viper; but these latter are extremely rare round Oxford.

There is a useful spring halfway up the valley, and quite typical of them all, a round sand-covered pot-hole, with the water oozing up in two or three places at the bottom and throwing up a little sand heap a few inches high. They get grown up considerably in the autumn with water plants, such as brooklime, and perhaps water cress. The big stone in front makes it possible to dip the water, the excess of which runs out by the side and down the hill. The frogs make a bath of it and loll there with their heads up, popping under at the slightest movement, but soon up again. It is astonishing how fearless all things are where there is wild solitude, yet how quickly they grow afraid of mankind, no doubt from the inherent tendency universal in men and boys to kill everything, particularly if uncommon and rare. This spring is always running, not much in the dryest part of summer, but with a chatter in wet weather. Its gathering ground is not a large one, as the whole of the hill is only small, but there is now no other stream this side of Cowley, this one down the valley gathers up all the water and furrows a deepish channel all down the Marsh until it reaches the river meadows: Then are no Alders anywhere except the few by the stream side in this valley, below the Marsh are Willows only, but the length of the streamlet from its highest spring is less than a couple of miles, and from the Marsh to the top of the hill the ground rises in all a hundred feet. The straight part of the stream past the Marsh was made, the older one ran very crooked behind and by the Cottages which are dotted behind the Marsh road or street.

The Moors continue wild as far as the top spring, the whole of this part and beyond being Headington Glebe land, close by on the rising ground are half a dozen cottages, and allotments take up the remainder. The top spring is like the one we have illustrated, but not quite so large, while the depression of the valley turns towards Shotover Hill and is crossed by the road, into which the path leads between the cottages. The last part of the moor is very swampy, rough tussocks of Juncus Rushes (Juncus effusus) – “Bull poles” they are called in some places – stand up here and there amid the rest of the green carpet, some barbed wire is stretched along in places, but all is wild yet, except the rising ground where the allotments are. Someone was saying “What a nice thing it would be if the City were to lay out a path along this Valley”, but No! leave it in its present state as long as possible, it is the last bit of wild land within the City, on this side of Oxford.

In the autumn the Grass of Parnassus with its creamy white flowers dot themselves among the vigorous growth in the Centre of the valley where the ground is swampy standing up, “like twinkling stars in the shadowy grass”, just two or three at a time on the root and each with a leaf encircling the stalk halfway down. They are very wax- like and have veins of semi-transparency down each of their five petals; in the centre the seed pods stands upright around it being five which raise their yellow heads between the opening in the leaves and between each of these radiating from a heart- shaped with 10, 11, or 12 tiny yellow gems on the top of each staminode. The larger they are magnified the more beautiful they appear.

The structures Taunt is trying to describe (heart-shaped base ‘with 10, 11 or 12 tiny yellow gems’ or shining blobs on thin stalks) are technically sterile stamens called ‘staminodes’. There are only five real stamens which contain pollen in the anthers. The staminodes between the true stamens are there to attract insects to pollinate the flowers, but they do it by lying. The shining blobs look as though they are sticky with nectar, but they are not – no nectar (a deception!). The real nectar production is at the base of each staminode. Another way of describing the situation is that the staminodes have false nectaries at the tips and true nectaries at their bases – they work very well as attractants for pollination, but economise on actual nectar production.