Bagthorpe Gardens is a group of

allotment Allotment may refer to: * Allotment (Dawes Act), an area of land held by the US Government for the benefit of an individual Native American, under the Dawes Act of 1887 * Allotment (finance), a method by which a company allocates over-subscribed s ...

s, about north-east of the centre of

Nottingham Nottingham ( , East Midlands English, locally ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city and Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority area in Nottinghamshire, East Midlands, England. It is located north-west of London, south-east ...

. It is listed Grade II* in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens. The entry listing remarks that the allotments are "a significant surviving example of a once abundant but now extremely rare type of garden, of which there are only four other registered examples".

Background

James Orange, the independent minister of Barker Gate Chapel in Nottingham, wrote a pamphlet "A Plea for the Poor" (1841), in which he advocated the provision of allotments for poor people, at a time of depression in the

framework knitting A stocking frame was a mechanical knitting machine used in the textiles industry. It was invented by William Lee of Calverton near Nottingham in 1589. Its use, known traditionally as framework knitting, was the first major stage in the mechan ...

trade. The plots would be a quarter of an acre; Orange calculated that this size could support a family for 13 weeks, supplementing a worker's main occupation during a depressed period. The scheme was supported by some landowners."Gardens"
''The Nottingham Heritage Gateway''. Retrieved 1 July 2022.

History and description

The allotments were created in 1842, when Ichabod Charles Wright of

Mapperley Hall Mapperley Hall is a country house located at 51 Lucknow Avenue in the Mapperley Park conservation area of Nottingham, England. Built by Ichabod Wright in 1792, it was the home of the Wright family of bankers until the end of the nineteenth centu ...

made land available for 60 allotment gardens. In 1870, 24 more plots were created north of Haydn Road. These were built over by 1915, and more plots were lost to housing during the 1920s and 1930s. There are now 36 gardens, in an area of about , in three rows from north to south. There are entrances from Haydn Road to the north and from Clandon Drive and Aubrey Road to the south. West Avenue runs along the west side of the first row, and East Avenue runs between the second and third rows. The plots are separated by hedges, and most are still in cultivation. In about thirteen gardens the 19th-century brick-built "bothies" survive, of which about three still have fireplaces.

Other listed garden allotments

Hill Close Gardens, Warwick Hill Close Gardens is a group of 18 surviving Victorian detached gardens on a hillside in Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It is listed Grade II* in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens. History The gardens were set up in the 19th ce ...

* St Ann's Allotments, Nottingham * Stoney Road Allotments, Coventry *

Westbourne Road Town Gardens Westbourne Road Town Gardens, or Westbourne Road Leisure Gardens, is a group of allotments in Edgbaston, Birmingham, England, created in 1844. It is listed Grade II in Historic England's Register of Parks and Gardens. History Birmingham in the la ...

, Birmingham

References

{{Reflist Grade II* listed parks and gardens in Nottinghamshire Nottingham