Plotlands (land development)
{{For|the television series|Plotlands}}
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.{{cite book |date=2005 |last=Cowan |first=Robert |title=The Dictionary of Urbanism |publisher=Streetwise Press |location=London, UK |page=298 |ISBN= 0954433009}} 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"{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=ix |ISBN= 9780907123590}} plotland developments gave the economically disadvantaged the opportunity to "take their own place in the sun".{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Wild |first=M T |title=Village England: a social history of the countryside |publisher=I B Tauris |location=London, UK |page=139 |ISBN= 1860649394}} Inhabitants were known as "plotlanders".{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=vii |ISBN= 9780907123590}}
History
The peak of plotland development was between the wars.{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=15 |ISBN= 9780907123590}} Immediately after WWI there was a "dire shortage" of housing, so people used obsolete army huts, converted buses, caravans, railway carriages,{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=ix |ISBN= 9780907123590}} coal barges,{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=17 |ISBN= 9780907123590}} and kit-built wooden chalets{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Wild |first=M T |title=Village England: a social history of the countryside |publisher=I B Tauris |location=London, UK |page=139 |ISBN= 1860649394}}
to create "temporary shanties", taking advantage of the "depressed prices of agricultural land and the absence of planning controls."{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Wild |first=M T |title=Village England: a social history of the countryside |publisher=I B Tauris |location=London, UK |page=138 |ISBN= 1860649394}}
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."{{cite book |date=1999 |last=Nicholson |first=Steve |title=British theatre and the Red Peril: the portrayal of communism |publisher=University of Exeter Press |location=Exeter, UK |page=42 |ISBN= 9780859896368}}
Until at least 1939, most plotlands developed without services: no mains electricity, street lighting, water, sewage or tarmacked roads.{{cite book |date=2006 |last=Rowley |first=Trevor |title=The English landscape in the twentieth century |publisher=Hambledon |location=London, UK |page=210 |ISBN= 1852853883}} During WWII, plotlands became popular as a place to shelter away from vulnerable cities, such as London, Liverpool, Bristol and Hull.{{cite book |date=2006 |last=Rowley |first=Trevor |title=The English landscape in the twentieth century |publisher=Hambledon |location=London, UK |page=212 |ISBN= 1852853883}}
Locations
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.{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=ix |ISBN= 9780907123590}}{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/a-last-hurrah-for-plotlanders-britains-interwar-guerrilla-housebuilders-a7715176.html|title=A last hurrah for plotlanders |author=Godfrey Holmes |website= independent.co.uk |date=2017-05-09 |access-date=2024-09-08}}
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.{{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: the legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |page=vii |ISBN= 9780907123590}}
Preservation and future
File:The Haven - geograph.org.uk - 1375111.jpg
The Haven Plotlands Museum{{cite web |url=https://www.essexwt.org.uk/nature-reserves/langdon/haven |title=The Haven Plotland Museum |author= |website= essexwt.org.uk |access-date=2024-09-08}} in Basildon is a plotland house now owned by the Essex Wildlife Trust.{{cite book |date=1999 |last=Worpole |first=Ken |title=Richer futures: fashioning a new politics |publisher=Earthscan |location=London, UK |page=93 |ISBN= 9781853835391}}
The Humberston Fitties plotlands in Lincolnshire were declared a conservation area in 2017.{{cite web |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/long_reads/humberston-fitties-plotlanders-humber-estuary-conservation-area-cleethorpes-lincolnshire-a7776676.html |title=Humberston Fitties: Northern plotlanders determined to live on in facy of adversity |author=Godfrey Holmes |website= independent.co.uk |date= 2017-06-17 |access-date=2024-08-28}}
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.{{cite web |url=http://www.yorkplotlands.uk |title=£20k housing – a lifestyle revolution |author= |website= yorkplotlands.uk |date= 2016-09-04 |access-date=2024-09-08}}
==Gallery==
File: The Haven, Dunton Plotlands Museum - geograph.org.uk - 2775060.jpg|The Haven Dunton Plotlands Museum
File: Inside The Haven - geograph.org.uk - 1375119.jpg|Inside The Haven, Dunton Plotlands Museum
File: Humberston Fitties Homes - geograph.org.uk - 2615962.jpg|Humberston Fitties, Lincolnshire
File: Humberston Fitties Homes - geograph.org.uk - 2615991.jpg|Humberston Fitties, Lincolnshire
File: Humberston Fitties Homes - geograph.org.uk - 2615958.jpg| Humberston Fitties, Lincolnshire
See also
- {{cite book |date=2023 |last=Dowling |first=A |title=Humberston Fitties: The Story of a Lincolnshire Plotland |publisher=Independent Publishing Network |location=London, UK |ISBN= 9781803527321 }}
- {{cite book |date=2004 |last=Hardy |first=Dennis |title=Arcadia for All: The Legacy of a makeshift landscape |publisher=Five Leaves |location=Nottingham, UK |ISBN= 9780907123590 }}