History

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Allotments have played an important part in British history, particularly in the 'Dig for Victory' campaign during World War II when people grew their own produce to boost their food supplies. 

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The Purley Way playing fields was originally agricultural land which Croydon Council levelled and grassed in order to create a recreational space for local residents. During World War II, it was used to grow crops like potatoes and wheat, which were then harvested by Whitgift schoolboys and people from the nearby housing estate.

When the war was over, Croydon Council designated some of this land as allotments and the remaining area was once again reassigned to public community recreational use. 

 
The Pampisford Road Allotments came into being because they were part of this land. The original site was much bigger than the one in existence today and included an orchard to the right hand side of the site (now part of Chancellor Gardens). To the left of the site was Kennards Sports Club and grounds which, when the orchard was sold to developers, became part of the allotment site. Its club buildings became the Trading Hut and locker room. Unfortunately, the Trading Hut was destroyed by fire in an arson attack in 2007 but was replaced with the new brick-built one afterwards.

 

Tenants of the original site had been mostly elderly people who were given the choice of plots on the adjusted site; have sadly since passed away. The plot-holder with the greatest longevity, has had his plot for the past 33 years. Today’s plotholders range from youngsters, tending with their grandparents, young couples, families with children to retirees and we spring from a widely diverse backgrounds, forming a supportive network with a community feel. 

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Plot sizes are measured in rods, an old Anglo-Saxon unit so-called because it was the length of the rod used to control a team of oxen. Whole plots are usually 10 rods or half plots are 5 rods. We also have limited quarter plots of 2.5 rods for beginners.

A 10 rod allotment is actually 10 square rods in area.
 

Note for historians and geologists: The allotment site soil is firm, reddish-brown sandy-silt sealing soliflucted chalk. It is thought that, due to the presence of a number of high-quality flint outcrops in the area, quarrying and processing may have been carried out locally, from the Mesolithic to the Bronze Age. A variety of flint artefacts including scrapers and axe heads have been found in the surrounding area and a Mesolithic axehead was discovered in Pampisford Road (Lask, 2003). (Pre-Construct Archaeology Ltd. 2004)