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Compton Martin has it’s own allotment field.
The field across the road from the village hall is called the Glebe field, and is owned by the church. As I understand it, written into the deeds of this field is a statement to the effect that anyone who is a resident of Compton Martin is eligible to have a plot on the allotment.
During the war the whole field was taken up with allotment plots, however now there are about 4 long strips like the one shown in the picture. The glebe field is a beautiful spot from which you can see the woods behind the church spire, and also all the way down the Yeo valley over Blagdon Lake. It’s heaven on earth listening to the bell-ringing practice on Friday nights in May as you watch the fruit of your labours grow tall.
The church lets the field for grazing, and the allotment is sublet by the farmer who manages the field on behalf of the church. For many years the Glebe field has been managed by the Salmon family.
The plots are inspected every year by some kind of national allotment association - I suppose this is to check the validity of any tax arrangements arising from the sub-letting. However, allotment holders are restricted in how they use the land, for example, people cannot keep livestock on their plot (this would necessitate change of use planning permission.)
Often people start out very enthusiastically and spend lots of time on their plots, and then circumstances change and they can’t maintain the effort required to keep the plots from becoming overgrown. This annoys other plot-holders as weeds go to seed and infest neighbouring plots, and things generally look untidy. There may be other people who would like to use such a plot. The problem for the farmer is that everytime someone in the village requests a plot they are obliged to move the boundary fence to facilitate space, but then if the plot is effectively abandoned the fence needs to be moved back again. It’s obviously better to try and maintain some status quo.
There is always some turnover with plots becoming available from time to time (without the need to move the fence). If you are interested in having a plot use the contact us page.
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