General Allotment Site Information

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This page is not intended to replace any information which is provided by the Council. The aim is merely to pull the main allotment-related information together in a single place.

Page lasted updated on March 4th, 2025.

Cardinal Rule

While you are largely left in peace, within the rules of your tenancy agreement, we are a community, albeit a loosely-coupled one. Therefore, it is important that you do not do anything that will adversely affect the enjoyment of other plot holders. Any problems which cannot be amicably resolved between plot holders should be referred to the Council.

Dealing with the Council

Over the years I have experienced four different Council regimes and (from memory) seven individuals who have been responsible for the allotments. The experience has varied widely: from off-hand, often with a failure to respond to emails at one extreme; to on the ball, helpful and courteous at the other. Matters are not helped by what appears to be an inability to hand over roles and responsibilities to the next person who takes on the job.

Factors for unsatisfactory behaviour can include: basic personality traits; a view that allotments are bottom of any list of Council priorities; and the orders of the clerk.

It will pay for any plot holder to be proactive. If you have a problem due to health, job, family et cetera then inform the Council as soon as possible. Do not wait for them to pursue you. Do not ignore emails. If they do not respond to your email – when you are expecting a reply – then wait for a week and re-send it unless you have had an out of office message. Keep repeating it (politely) until they do reply.

If you have any other problems, e.g. with another plot holder or site-related, then please remember to be polite in your dealings with the Council.

At the time of writing (April 2024), Suzie, the latest Council incumbent, has been excellent so far. Try not to turn her into a cynic!

The Gates

It is the responsibility of all plot holders to ensure that the gates are locked when there is nobody on the site. Please check when you leave and, if you are the last person out, lock the gates. Ensure that the lock is under the piece of “wellie” which is there to protect it from the worst of the weather.

Always remember to have your key to the lock with you whenever you come to the site. Apart from getting in, if the gates are locked when you arrive, it will allow you to get out if somebody accidently locks you in. Familiarise yourself with the instructions for unlocking the gate from the inside if you are ever locked in. If it is unclear how to get out then see this set of blow-by-blow instructions.

The Council issued some guidance on gate security in late April, 2021. Here is a copy.

Beware that a number of vehicles have clipped the small gate over the years when only the large gate has been open. The vehicles come off much worse than the gate. Better to open both gates.

Bonfires

There is a metal cage, commonly known as “the incinerator”, in the SE corner of the site that you can use to burn your prunings. There is no service. It is your responsibility to burn your own material. Here are some common-sense notes:

If any material is compostable then do not burn it. There have been examples of people leaving weeds and even grass cuttings for burning!
Metal, plastic and any other material which is likely to give off toxic fumes should not be burned
Treated timber should ideally not be burned. The reason for saying this is that some plot holders may use the ash from bonfires as a fertiliser on their plots, and they might simply be incorporating harmful chemicals into their soil. It is therefore recommended that you remove treated timber from the site and take it to the tip
Material should not be brought onto the site for burning
Do not leave material for burning next to the incinerator or within it. Nearby plot holders should not be faced with untidy piles of waste. Keep it on your own plot until you are ready to burn it
Do not upset neighbours or other plot holders with the smoke from your bonfire. With this in mind: choose a day when there is no wind, or when the wind is coming from a northerly direction, resulting in the smoke drifting towards the farm; and choose a time when there are unlikely to be other people around, e.g. early morning or evening
The leaves from freshly cut prunings will produce a lot of smoke, due to the moisture content. If they have been left for a while to dry out the smoke will be much less pronounced
Do not leave bonfires unattended.

Plot Paths

Each plot holder is responsible for maintaining the grass paths around his or her plot. The basic rule is that you are responsible for the paths to the north and to the east of your plot. In addition, if there is no neighbouring plot to either the south or west of your plot then you are also responsible for those paths. For example, if your plot is adjacent to one of the main “roads” on the site then you are responsible for the grassed strip between your plot and the “road”. The site map has little arrows on it which indicate the paths that are the responsibility of each plot.

Please note that you are not responsible for maintaining the path edges of those neighbouring plots.

Plot Inspections

The Council carries out plot inspections. If you have a valid reason for not cultivating your plot, such as health issues, then it is recommended that you inform the Council as soon as possible. Do not wait for them to pursue you for having an overgrown plot. If the Council does have cause to contact you about non-cultivation, please make sure that you reply to any email or letter. Do not simply ignore it.

Water Supply

The water is turned off over the autumn and winter to prevent damage to the exposed pipes during freezing weather. The water is turned on for the season around the time that the clocks go forward in March, and off when the clocks go back in late October.

Hose pipes can be used except when they have been banned during periods of water shortage. However, they must only be used when you are present on the site.

Water Tanks

It would help to keep the tanks reasonably clean if they are not used to wash crops or tools. Use a bucket of water to do such cleaning, and then empty the dirty water onto your plot. It would be useful if an old bucket and washing-up brush was left next to each tank to facilitate this cleaning.

The Council considered removing the water tanks on the basis that they could constitute a health hazard. Threat to Water Tanks was written to refute the health hazard claim. The Council’s current view is that there are no plans to remove the water tanks.

The Ditch and Surrounding Areas in Wet Winters

Firstly, a generalisation .. any work in the ditch or on the far side of it should be limited to the period from May to September. These are the only months when you can rely on the ditch to be dry .. although obviously it can vary from year to year depending on the weather.

Conditions along the ditch vary. The area from the main path down to the school fence tends not to be too bad. However, the area from the main path to the SE corner can be very bad, gradually getting worse the nearer that you get to the corner.

In essence, rain run-off from the main car park and the VH car park comes down a pipe alongside the main path to the ditch, and it then travels down towards the SE corner. Although the ditch continues parallel to Church Road down towards Bedford Lane, at some time in the dim and distant past the owner of the adjoining property blocked it off.

It means that this dam effectively stops water getting away and the ditch often fills right up to the top from (say) plot 44 down to the SE corner, while the rest of the ditch back to the main path has varying degrees of standing water. Water obviously seeps into the surrounding ground, notably from plot 44 down to the SE corner, making it boggy. It then becomes unsuitable for any heavy vehicles during this period, e.g. wood chip deliveries, as they will simply churn up the ground. At its worst, it may ultimately come unsuitable for any vehicle.

It should be made clear that it is not just the car parks which are responsible for water in the ditch. The site is on a slight slope and water noticeably runs downhill in various places and can result in standing water on some plots, as well as contributing to the amount in the ditch.

Standing Water on Plots

Heavy rain, generally in the winter and early spring, results in standing water on some plots, as shown in the videos on this page which also has a map of the worst affected plots.

There appears to be two main sources:

rainwater coming from the three large houses next to the site which flows downhill, generally in a straight line
I speculate that the other source is run-off from the Village Hall car park.

There is also some run-off from the school playing field near the south west corner of the site.

Digging gullies around the borders of a plot should reduce the problem for an individual plot holder, but it is unlikely to totally cure it. Limiting any early sowing or planting to drier parts of the plot may also be helpful.

Recycling

The seat near the car park is used as a recycling point for crops, seeds and plants. It is a system that works well. However, do remember that if something that you have put on the seat is not taken within a reasonable period of time then it is your responsibility to remove it. It seldom happens that items are not taken.

Up until August 2023, it was also used to recycle non-perishable items such as tools, plant pots et cetera. However, this facility has been abused with items such as chairs being brought onto the site and left. It is not known if this has been done by neighbours or by a plot holder. After the council was forced to remove one lot of items, it put up a notice which no longer allows non-perishable items to be left there.

It is recommended that you advertise any non-perishable items via the email group.

Dumping

Please do not dump any material anywhere on the site. Please remove all your unwanted material from the site. In particular, please note that the incinerator area is not a place for plot holders to simply offload any rubbish from their allotment. Clods of soil cannot be burnt! .. plastic would produce toxic fumes .. metal is very unlikely to melt .. et cetera, et cetera.

Dogs

They were banned from the site in the 1960s after problems with uncontrolled dogs. Your tenancy agreement states that they are not allowed onto the site without the written permission of the Council, which will only be given in exceptional circumstances.

Wildlife

The following is limited to legal requirements:

badgers are a protected species and it is illegal to disturb them and/or their sett
pheasants can only be killed between October 1st and February 1st.

Other Plots

It goes without saying that you must not take anything from another person’s plot without their permission or damage their plot in any way.

Although a plot can sometimes appear to have been abandoned, do not be tempted to take any items, damage it or do any pruning on it without asking the current tenant’s permission, or the council’s permission if there is no current tenant.

Best Allotment Competition

The Council runs this competition each season. If you do not wish to take part then let the Council know early in the season.

Your New Plot

If you are a new plot holder, or you have taken on another plot, then you will have accepted it “as seen” .. or sometimes not as seen, e.g. when unwanted items such as carpets or weed suppressant material may be subsequently unearthed. Whatever the situation, you are responsible for everything that you have inherited. Therefore, please adhere to the following:

Do not dump unwanted material from the plot elsewhere on the site, as previously mentioned.
Follow the bonfire etiquette, as previously described, if you plan to burn any prunings
And finally, do not skim the top off overgrown areas and dump the sods elsewhere on the site.

Volunteering for site maintenance

Apart from regular tasks such as grass cutting of the common parts during the season, the majority of site maintenance work tends to be carried out over the autumn and winter months. While the Council performs the heavier tasks, it would help to keep the site in reasonable condition if plot holders can contribute to any other tasks which need doing. Therefore, please consider volunteering to help out. Tasks can often be undertaken by individuals at times of their choosing. This is not to say that they cannot be carried out by working parties where this approach is preferred.

If you are interested in being responsible (solely or jointly) for site matters, mainly site maintenance then you may wish to read the Background to Sunningdale Allotments. Note that it is password-protected. Contact Brian King or Stephen Kitson for details.

Resources

This is a copy of the council’s document, entitled Sunningdale Allotments – Plot Guidelines, Rules, Etiquette and Useful Information (March 2025).

The operation of the gates can sometimes be confusing to new plot holders. As mentioned earlier, here is a set of blow-by-blow instructions.

Here is the site map (March 2025), which can also be found on the allotments page of the Council website and on the noticeboard in the car park. This detailed site map shows additional information such as the position of water pipes which were added (2008-2011) and the drainage pipe which was installed in the 1990s.

Background to Sunningdale Allotments may be a useful read to those who are interested in what has happened in recent years.

I carried out rent surveys in 2007, 2010 and 2024. Here is the latest.

Some years ago, the general experiences of around a dozen plot holders were collated in an attempt to provide some, hopefully useful, information for any new plot holders who have had little or no experience of cultivating on an allotment. They were written up in the form of the following two web pages

New to an Allotment
Approaches to Cultivation

They are not intended to replace allotment books. Indeed, some books are recommended in the New to an Allotment web page.

Plot holders, mainly but not always newcomers, have periodically asked specific cultivation questions. The questions and the responses can be found on the FAQs from plot holders page.

As mentioned in the water tanks section, the Council considered removing them on the basis that they could constitute a health hazard. Threat to Water Tanks was written to refute the health hazard claim.

If you are interested in local history generally, or simply in the history of our site, then A History of Sunningdale Allotments may prove to be a useful read.

Finally, there is also a Brief History of Allotments in England.

Security of Allotment Tenure

The question is periodically asked as to how safe is our tenure, that is can the site be closed down to allow residential development?

Let us start with some general observations before dealing with our site.

Some people have come across the term “statutory allotment” which means that the land can only be used for allotments. They want to know if we have “statutory allotment” status, and if not how do we go about getting it? The answer is that it is all about what words are used in the land contract. If the contract explicitly states that the land can only be used for allotments then it automatically confers “statutory allotment” status. There is no procedure whereby a site can apply / purchase such status. It is all about the wording in the original land contract.

Beware that “statutory allotment” status is not a cast-iron guarantee of survival. The owner of the land can apply to the Secretary of State who is responsible for allotments for a change of use. The usual (first) excuse that is employed is to say that plots are overgrown and neglected. At the time of writing (2022), the Duke of Northumberland, the owner of Syon Park in Isleworth, has been using it as part of his strategy to close a site and develop it. So, if you want your site to survive then part of the answer is to ensure that the plots are satisfactorily tended.

So, what about our site? From its inception around 1880 up to the 1980s, the owner of the land on which the site resided was St. John’s College, Cambridge, and the current site was rented from them. Little protection was afforded by this arrangement, and in the 1980s the College applied to build 29 houses on the site. Planning permission was not granted. Eventually, a deal was struck whereby the College was allowed to build the three large properties on the north side of the site, adjacent to the car park, and in return the Council was given the freehold of the remainder. The all-important land contract states that the ground can only be used for allotments or as a recreation ground. So, we have a degree of protection, especially if we manage to maintain our plots in good order.

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