Independence.

We went to Filey on the east coast today, and had a walk along the front in the bracing sea air then up towards the gardens at the far end. When we reached the top I noticed the council had put up an information board about a famous sea battle that took place in the bay, between Britain and America no less. Apparently, in September of 1779, one John Paul Jones, an American of Scottish birth, took on the might of the British navy in the American War of Independence and won. In fact just to rub our noses it in, he also nicked one of our ships, his own being damaged, and scarpered off to Holland in it!

As we stood looking out towards Flamborough Head, I could just imagine the ships blasting each other at point blank range within the bay, and the carnage being caused. An epic battle between the nascent America and the government of Britain being waged just off our coast, who would have thought it.

So what has this got to do with allotments, I hear you ask.

Well it’s to do with the psychology of allotment holders, and what makes them tick. After all not everyone is as daft we are, to turn out in all weathers digging and weeding, and fight an endless war of attrition with countless pests and diseases. All to get a few vegetables that would cost half as much from the supermarket, if the true cost of the many hours of labour were accounted for.

So there must be something else, and I think it’s all down to independence.

Most allotment holders seem to have a strong desire to work their own piece land and grow their own vegetables, in an act of almost defiant independence of “the system”. It’s like sticking two fingers up to the hegemony of the supermarkets, and the officialdom that took away our rights to land for the benefit of today’s elite rich landowners.

Now back to that battle - John Paul Jones was just one of many thousands of people at the time, who moved to a new country in search of independence and to own their own piece of land. Admittedly, many were forced by circumstance, but many were not, and they all took their chance, in the hope of having a piece of earth they could call their own. So strong was this desire, that they took on the old system and won their nation’s independence, through the bravery of men like this.

So I’d like to think that we humble allotment holders, have a little bit in common with these early pioneers, in retaining and nurturing that same strong sense of independence, and woe betide those bloody councillors if they try to put the rent up this year!