Plotlands were areas of cheap British farmland, including along the coast and rivers, which, between the 1890s and 1939, were divided and sold for holiday homes or as smallholdings. [1] Described as "a makeshift world of shacks and shanties, scattered unevenly in plots of varying size and shape, with unmade roads and little in the way of services" [2] plotland developments gave the economically disadvantaged the opportunity to "take their own place in the sun". [3] Inhabitants were known as "plotlanders". [4]
The peak of plotland development was between the wars. [5] Immediately after WWI there was a "dire shortage" of housing, so people used obsolete army huts, converted buses, caravans, railway carriages, [6] coal barges, [7] and kit-built wooden chalets [8] to create "temporary shanties", taking advantage of the "depressed prices of agricultural land and the absence of planning controls." [9]
In 1927 playwright H.F. Maltby (1880–1963) wrote a play What Might Happen: A Piece of Extravagance in 3 Acts satirising life in the plotlands where Maltby "imagined a future in which former aristocrats live in abject poverty in leaking railway carriages or former army huts." [10]
Until at least 1939, most plotlands developed without services: no mains electricity, street lighting, water, sewage or tarmacked roads. [11] During WWII, plotlands became popular as a place to shelter away from vulnerable cities, such as London, Liverpool, Bristol and Hull. [12]
Plotland locations included: Callow Green, Canvey Island, Hardwick Wood, Humberston Fitties, Isle of Sheppey, Jaywick Sands, Central Park, Peacehaven, Pitsea, Point Clear, Ram Hill, Rochester Park and Garden Suburb, Rye Bay, Selsey Peninsula, Saltdean, Shotgate, Vange Hill and Woodingdean. [13] [14]
People from the West Midlands would travel to the Severn Valley and North Wales, those from Glasgow would go to the Ayrshire coast, and those from West Riding cities would travel to the Yorkshire coast and the Humber estuary. [15]
The Haven Plotlands Museum [16] in Basildon is a plotland house now owned by the Essex Wildlife Trust. [17]
The Humberston Fitties plotlands in Lincolnshire were declared a conservation area in 2017. [18]
The York Plotlands Association is "campaigning to update the model of plotland development which was (more or less) outlawed by the 1947 Planning Act" for people planning to build their own home on their own plot. [19]
Colin Ward was a British anarchist writer and editor. He has been called "one of the greatest anarchist thinkers of the past half century, and a pioneering social historian."
Cleethorpes is a seaside town on the estuary of the Humber in North East Lincolnshire, Lincolnshire, England with a population of 29,678 in 2021. It has been permanently occupied since the 6th century, with fishing as its original industry, then developing into a resort in the 19th century. Before becoming a unified town, Cleethorpes was made up of the three small villages of Itterby, Oole and Thrunscoe.
Stamford is a town and civil parish in the South Kesteven district of Lincolnshire, England. The population at the 2011 census was 19,701 and estimated at 20,645 in 2019. The town has 17th- and 18th-century stone buildings, older timber-framed buildings and five medieval parish churches. It is a frequent film location. In 2013 it was rated a top place to live in a survey by The Sunday Times. Its name has been passed on to Stamford, Connecticut, founded in 1641.
Peacehaven is a town and civil parish in the Lewes district of East Sussex, England. It is located above the chalk cliffs of the South Downs approximately six miles (9.7 km) east of Brighton city centre, on the A259 road. Its site coincides with the point where the Greenwich meridian crosses the English south coast. Peacehaven is next to Telscombe Cliffs, a later western extension to Peacehaven, which lies within a separate parish and has a separate town council.
The South Yorkshire Joint Railway was a committee formed in 1903, between the Great Central Railway, the Great Northern Railway, the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway, the Midland Railway and the North Eastern Railway to oversee the construction of a new railway in the Doncaster area of South Yorkshire, England. The five companies had equal rights over the line, each of the companies regularly working trains over it.
Richard Parkes Bonington was an English Romantic landscape painter. He moved to France at the age of 14 and can also be considered as a French artist, and an intermediary bringing aspects of English style to France. Becoming, after his early death, one of the most influential British artists of his time, the facility of his style was inspired by the old masters, yet was entirely modern in its application. His landscapes were mostly of coastal scenes, with a low horizon and large sky, showing a brilliant handling of light and atmosphere. He also painted small historical cabinet paintings in a freely-handled version of the troubadour style.
The North Midlands is a loosely defined area covering the northern parts of the Midlands in England. It is not one of the ITL regions like the East Midlands or the West Midlands.
In the 1772 English cricket season, it became normal practice to complete match scorecards and there are surviving examples from every subsequent season. Scorecards from 1772 have been found for three eleven-a-side matches in which the Hampshire county team played against an England team, and for one top-class single wicket match between Kent and Hampshire. The three Hampshire v England matches have been unofficially recognised by certain sources as first-class, although no such standard existed at the time. Prior to 1772, only four scorecards have survived, the last from a minor match in 1769.
Wainfleet All Saints is an ancient port, market town and civil parish on the east coast of England, in the East Lindsey district of Lincolnshire, on the A52 road 5 miles (8 km) south-west of Skegness and 14 miles (23 km) north-east of Boston. It stands on two small rivers, the Steeping and Limb, that form Wainfleet Haven. The town is close to the Lincolnshire Wolds. The village of Wainfleet St Mary is to the south. In 2011 the parish had a population of 1604.
Cliffe Woods is a small estate on the Hoo Peninsula in the unitary authority of Medway in South East England. It was, until 1998, part of Kent and is still ceremonially associated via the Lieutenancies Act. It forms part of the parish of Cliffe and Cliffe Woods.
The field elm cultivar Ulmus minor 'Plotii', commonly known as Lock elm or Lock's elm, Plot's elm or Plot elm, and first classified as Ulmus sativaMill. var. Lockii and later as Ulmus plotii by Druce in 1907-11, is endemic mainly to the East Midlands of England, notably around the River Witham in Lincolnshire, in the Trent Valley around Newark-on-Trent, and around the village of Laxton, Northamptonshire. Ronald Melville suggested that the tree's distribution may be related to river valley systems, in particular those of the Trent, Witham, Welland, and Nene. Two further populations existed in Gloucestershire. It has been described as Britain's rarest native elm, and recorded by The Wildlife Trust as a nationally scarce species.
Laindon is a town and civil parish, which now forms part of the town of Basildon, in the Basildon district, in Essex, England. It is between Basildon and West Horndon. It was also an ancient parish. It was based on the manor of the same name. As of 2020, Laindon's population was 37,175.
The Twentieth Century Society, founded in 1979 as The Thirties Society, is a British charity that campaigns for the preservation of architectural heritage from 1914 onwards. It is formally recognised as one of the National Amenity Societies, and as such is a statutory consultee on alterations to listed buildings within its period of interest.
Waltham was a railway station on the East Lincolnshire Railway which served the villages of New Waltham and Humberston in Lincolnshire between 1848 and 1964. It was originally named Waltham and Humberstone, but Humberstone was dropped soon after opening. The line through Waltham remained open for freight until December 1980.
Dunton Wayletts or Dunton is a hamlet and former civil parish in the Borough of Basildon in Essex, England. It lies on the western outskirts of the borough's main town of Basildon, adjoining the suburb of Laindon.
Thomas Frederick Mackenzie Humberston was a British Army officer and Chief of the Highland Clan Mackenzie.
Sandbeck Park is a Neo-Palladian country house in Maltby, South Yorkshire, England. The house dates to the 17th century and was extensively expanded and remodeled in the 18th and 19th centuries. The house is Grade I listed with Historic England and several outbuildings on the estate are also listed. The house has been the seat of the Earls of Scarbrough since the 18th century. The garden was designed by Lancelot Brown and is also Grade II* listed.
Roger Ulick Branch Westman was a British architect. He is best known for his designs of council housing in London.
Great Coastal Railway Journeys is a BBC documentary series produced by Naked West and presented by Michael Portillo, a former Conservative MP and Minister of State for Transport.
The Humberston Fitties is a holiday resort that began as an inter-war plotland in the civil parish of Humberston, in the North East Lincolnshire district, in the ceremonial county of Lincolnshire, England.