Longbarrow allotments originated on the site of the Summerbee Secondary School, now Bishop of Winchester and was established under the name of Strouden Park unemployed fellowship back in the 1920’s. it was created to give tenant’s the opportunity to grow wholesome food to feed their families.

Their value was enhanced during the Dig for Victory campaign of the war years but following peace and the return of servicemen and resultant baby boom and a need for new schools saw a compulsory move to enable the new secondary school of Summerbee, now Bishop of Winchester to be built.

The site chosen for the new Allotments was the new longbarrow estate behind houses in Ibbertson and Jewell roads.Nearly 100 tennants were transferred to the new site in 1950.

The longbarrow Allotments Association was formed a year later, membership being voluntary but most plot holders joined. The subscription being Half-a-Crown plus 4 pence for the NAGS.

The site was administered by the parks department of the Bournemouth corporation and the rent of a standard plot of 100 rods( approx 225sqm.) was eleven shillings and eightpence. That’s about £12.00 in todays money.

Only the very basic facilities were provided , a few water points, a main shed and the toilets comprising a urinal trench and a bucket which we had to empty ourselves. There was a second compartment for the ladies though, in those early days the female sex were quite rare visitors.

Through the almost fifty years of our tenancy that site we had a continuousbattle with the corporation for improved facilities, commencing with a need to fence the site with rabbitt proof netting for which each tennant had to contribute ten shillings in four instalments of half-a-crown. Extra water points, eventually requiring a larger diameter water main, the upkeep of roads, the reletting of unkept plots being some of the recurring topics.  Our constant needs were discussed by the allotments sub-committee on which our chairman, John Mills was a co-opted member.

Increasing demand for allotments caused the council to create another twenty tempory plots in the adjacent field to the north-west.

Building up the strength of the society was the main aim in the early years. A shop was established in half of the corrugated hut provided and we purchased fertilisers, seeds, seed potatoes, insecticides and other sundries and resoldto our members. A retired member agreed to become hut warden and he was resonsible for the majority of the sales. He was paid a very small remuneration but after his death all jobs were done voluntary- a situation which still persists to this day.

Gradually as more and more housing was built, we became completly surrounded, the temporary plots were developed as flats and our site became a regular short cut between what had become Townsend and castle Lane. with regular people passing through came more amd more stealing of crops and vandalism. Glass cloches were often destroyed until it became pointless to use them.

The repeated vandilism reached it’s climax in 1954 when following several break-ins the hut was set on fire and completly destroyed. Insurance had been unobtainable so the loss of all the stock had to be borne by the association.