Allotments - Definition - Law Dictionary Home Dictionary Definition allotments

Definition :

Allotments. Many (English) Acts (see chit. Stat., tit. 'Allotments') have been passed authorizing parish officers to let out to poor persons small quantities of parish land or land originally allotted under inclosure Acts for the benefit of the poor. The Small Holdings and Allotments Act, 1908 (Part II.), empowers parish, urban, borough or county councils to provide plots of land for persons belonging to the labouring population of the locality to cultivate as farms or gardens. Land for allotments may be acquired compulsorily by the above bodies (ss. 12 and 27, Land Settlement (Facilities) Act, 1919) (as amended by the 1925 Act, s. 1). This Act as amended by the Allotments Act, 1922, necessitates a six months' or longer notice to quit (but see s. 30(2) of the Act, 1908, and s. 1 of the Act of 1922), and provides, notwithstanding any agreement to the contrary, for compensation to an outgoing tenant by the landlord for growing crops, manure, improvement, etc. (s. 47 of the Act of 1908, and ss. 2-7 of the Act of 1922). A simple method of determining the amount of compensation by arbitration is provided.

'Allotment garden' was defined by the Act of 1922,

s. 22(6) (repealed by the Agricultural Holdings Act, 1923), as meaning an allotment not exceeding 40 poles in extent which is wholly or mainly cultivated by the occupier for the production of vegetable or fruit crops for consumption by himself or his family. The Allotments Act, 1925, defined 'allotment' as an allotment garden as defined by the Allotments Act of 1922, as any parcel of land not more than five acres in extent cultivated as intended to be cultivated as a garden or farm, or partly as a garden and partly as a farm.

A special department of the Board (now Ministry) of Agriculture and Fisheries (q.v.) has been created to deal with small holdings and allotment matters, and Small Holdings Commissioners have been appointed.

See 'Spencer's Small Holdings and Allotments' and 'Aggs on Agricultural Holdings.'