Page 59 - ALG Issue 3 2021

Wales
All counties of Wales
REPRESENTATIVE
Judith Hill
07724993310 or 02920 758080
No, they are not
allotments...!
Bill Nelmes, who by the late 1960s had succeeded his father (also William),
as Director of Cardiff’s Parks, enjoyed taking continental holidays. He had encountered municipal chalet gardens, while travelling in France, and was keen to establish a site in Cardiff by way of experiment. William Nelmes (senior) served as a member of the Thorpe Committee of Inquiry into allotments. After the Second World War, allotment use steadily declined, being seen as a male working class preserve. The report advocated a
move to a more continental model of leisure gardens, rather than purely productive allotments for those with no gardens of their own. One of the earliest pioneering schemes cited in the report was on Cardiff’s Allensbank Allotment site. A photograph of this demonstration garden, opened in July 1967, shows much the same elements and layout as the Pontcanna gardens - a lawn, flower beds, wooden chalet, ornamental trees and shrubs, and a screened off productive area.
A 1971 article in ‘The Gardener’s Chronicle’ reported on the Pontcanna gardens (incidentally originally intended for residents of the three nearby tower blocks – Lydstep Flats, Gabalfa): ‘Six months ago the first tenants of the Cardiff chalet gardens scheme took over their plots. Each plot consists of 450 sq. yards, is fenced and provided with a chalet.’ They proved instantly popular. In 1972 the Municipal Journal reported the scheme, with eight sites: ‘putting the emphasis on flowers rather than food ... five people applied for every garden on offer. It was a first sign of reversal of the dwindling interest
in allotments.’ Each garden originally had a greenhouse (unfortunately all eight of them were mysteriously stolen one night). An early photo shows a couple sitting on a garden swing on a lawn, overlooking the open parkland of Pontcanna Fields.
A similar leisure gardens scheme was created in Broomhill, Bristol, where 22 gardens were made in the early
MENTOR
Peter Ryan
Wales
0845 564 1881 pryan.nas@gmail.com
Calls to 0845 numbers cost 3p (ex VAT) per minute plus your telephone company’s access charge
Welcome to our new members...
Pwllygarth St Allotment Society 1 Individual
1970s. They remain popular; however, since this early 1970s initiative, interest in allotment gardening rapidly rose
and the chalet garden idea was no longer pursued. The Pontcanna Chalet Gardens are, therefore, a rare survival of a very short-lived movement in horticultural and social history. The chalet gardens are included in Cadw’s ‘Register of Landscapes, Parks and Gardens of Special Historic Interest in Wales’. They form an integral part of the grade II* Pontcanna and Llandaff Fields Conservation Area.
In 2013 Cadw considered listing some of the original chalets. However, Cadw decided to revise the entry in the register for Pontcanna and Llandaff Fields to include a long description
of the chalet gardens. It refers to the gardens being reached by a track, originally a main public road leading to a ford over the River Taff and, the other way, stables’ headquarters that were mill cottages, and then, towards the end of the 19th century, a ‘House of Mercy’ for fallen women. The former mill race runs along the southern boundary of the site and is surrounded by trees. Some of the original garden layouts, chalets, fencing, and planting remain.
Some of the gardens have had a chequered career, suffering from vandalism, neglect, rough sleepers
residing in the chalets, fire damage to the chalets, gardens overrun by horses from the neighbouring Pontcanna Riding School and even severe flooding from the nearby River Taff. Today, the gardens are well kept, but the mature trees in and around overshadowing the site, make it difficult to grow flowers and vegetables, as originally intended. The trees have, however, resulted in secluded and hidden gardens full of wildlife, in the middle of a busy city.
The site remains owned and managed by Cardiff County Council and there
is a committee of tenants to oversee activities and improvements.
Ian Horsburgh
(a tenant since 1985)
Allotment and Leisure Gardener 59