Our History

The 1887 Allotments Act placed a duty on local authorities to provide land for use as allotments for the labouring population.

Accordingly, a parcel of land now known as the West End Allotments was made available for rental by the Nightingale family to Kingston Union Rural District Council. A lease between William Nightingale (the lessor) and the Council (the lessee) was made on  18th March 1895 to rent such land for a 21 year term with a yearly rental of £18 p.a. This lease, which consists of 4 more pages can be viewed by following these links:

 

Lease Page 2

 

 

Lease Page 3

 

Lease Page 4

 

Lease Page 5

 

We do not have copies of subsequent leases that cover the period up to the point in time during the inter-war years when the land was compulsary purchased by Elmbridge Borough Council (EBC).

Thereafter the tenants formed themselves into an Association and appointed 3 Trustees. 

The Trustees entered into a series of 25 year leases with EBC, the earliest we have on file being dated 16th June 1993. At that time the Trustees were:

  • Robert Postle
  • Robin William Staines
  • Roy Nightingale

The current lease was made on 19th June 2019 at which time the Trustees were:

  • Paul John Gibson
  • Mark Aslan Joshua
  • David Dorian Oliver Keen