The Working Man's Green Space: Allotment Gardens in England, France, and Germany, 1870-1919

Chronology

England 1795 Select Committee of the House of Commons gathers evidence on instituting allotments as national policy; committee report supports allotments, but no legislation is passed 1816 Bread and Blood riots 1819 Sturges Bourne’s Select Vestries Act (59 Geo. 3, c. 12), granting boroughs the right to lease land and sublet to indigents 1830 Captain Swing riots 1831 Second Act of Parliament allowing for enclosure of Crown lands (1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 42, 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 59) 1832 Fuel Allotments Act of 1832 (2 Will. 4, c. 42), empowering parish officers to enclose wasteland to let in allotments Representation of the People Act, commonly referred to as Reform Act (2 & 3 Will. 4, c. 45), granting voting rights to adult males renting property (one in seven) 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act 1843 Select Committee Report by the Special Assistant Poor Law commissioners on the Employment of Women and Children in Agriculture (P.P. 1843, XII) 1845 The Inclosure Act (8 & 9 Vict., c. 118), General Enclosure Act including allotments clauses, followed by acts amending and extending it in 1846, 1847, 1848, 1849, 1851, 1852, 1854, 1857, 1859, 1868 Land Clauses Consolidation Act (8 & 9 Vict., c. 18) 1846 Repeal of the Corn Laws by Importation Act (9 & 10 Vict., c. 22) 1848 Revolutions on continent The Communist Manifesto 1851 Population majority shifts from rural to urban 1854 Land Clauses Consolidation Act 1855 Metropolis Local Management Act (18 & 19 Vict., c. 120) 1859 Darwin, Essay on the Origin of the Species 1860 Land Clauses Consolidation Acts Amendment Act (23 & 24 Vict., c. 106) 1867 Representation of the People Act, or Second Reform Act (30 & 31 Vict., c. 102), granting all male householders the right to vote Shift of House of Commons representation from rural to urban Commission to Enquire into the Employment of Children, Young Persons, and Women in Agriculture (report, July 1868) 1872–74 Disturbances in rural areas; formation of agricultural laborers’ unions CHRONOLOGY Chronology 178 1873 Poor Allotments Management Act (36 & 37 Vict., c. 19) 1875 Public Works Loans Act (38 & 39 Vict., c. 89) 1876 Commons Act (39 & 40 Vict., c. 56), intended to prevent further enclosures, save in exceptional cases 1882 Allotment Extension Act of 1882 (45 & 46 Vict., c. 80), requiring charity commissioners to lease charity lands as allotments when requested Commission on Agriculture (reports, 1880–82) 1883 Foundation of the Fabian Society 1884 Representation of the People Act, or Third Reform Act (48 & 49 Vict., c. 3), extending application of 1867 Act to the countryside, giving most male agricultural laborers the vote (still excluding 40 percent of male laborers) 1884–85 Commission on the Housing of the Working Class 1885 Housing of the Working Classes Act (48 & 49 Vict., c. 72) 1886 Call for legislation by Gladstone to reconnect laborer to soil 1887 The Allotments Act (50 & 51 Vict., c. 48) The Allotments and Cottage Gardens Compensation for Crops Act (50 & 51 Vict., c. 26) 1888 Local Government Act (51 & 52 Vict., c. 41) 1889 Foundation of General Union of Railway Labourers and Amalgamated National Union of Seamen and Steamers Dockers and gas workers’ strike Publication of Fabian essays in socialism Establishment of Board of Agriculture 1890 The Tenants Compensation Act (53 & 54 Vict., c. 57) Allotment Act (53 & 54 Vict., c. 65) 1892 The Small Holdings Act (55 & 56 Vict., c. 31) 1894 The Local Government Act (56 & 57 Vict., c. 73) 1897 The Land Transfer Act (60 & 61 Vict., c. 65) 1899 London Government Act (62 & 63 Vict., c. 14), creating metropolitan boroughs with mayors 1899–1902 Boers War 1900 Foundation of Labour Representation Committee (LRC) 1906 LRC becomes Labour Party, with twenty-nine members elected to Commons 1907 Small Holdings and Allotments Act (7 Edw. 7., c. 54) 1908 Small Holdings and Allotments Act (8 Edw. 7, c. 36) Agricultural Holdings Act, consolidating the Agricultural Holdings Acts of 1883, 1900, and 1906 1909 Housing and Town Planning Act (1909, c. 35) 1911 Parliament Act 1911 (1 & 2 Geo. 5., c. 13) 1916 Defence of the Realm (Acquisition of Land) Act (6 & 7 Geo. 5, c. 63) Cultivation of Lands Order, December 1917 Cultivations of Lands Order, February, maintaining land rents at prewar levels Special Cultivation of Land Committee 1918 Representation of the People Act, or Fourth Reform Act, granting right to vote to men at age twenty-one and to women who helped in the war effort at age thirty Chronology 179 1919 Land Settlement (Facilities) Act (9 & 10 Geo. 5, c. 59) Housing and Town Planning Act (1919, c. 35) 1920 Agriculture Act (10...