Cottenham Park Allotments

History of the Site

 

The following is a brief summary of legal documents relating to the Site. The CPAGA has photocopies of the documents.

 

20 December 1852

(a) A sale of land for £ 1,960 to Patrick Campbell from Frederick Finch - 5 "pieces of land" between new roads "called or intended to be called" Cottenham Park Road and Cambridge Road.

(b) A Deed of Covenant on this land restricting the erection of buildings and the carrying on of certain trades or businesses.

 

15 August 1888

An Agreement (the Richardson Agreement) between Mrs Turner (Patrick Campbell's niece - the current owner) and Ben Richardson of Rose Cottage, Richmond Road, a market gardener. Ben Richardson followed his father, Richard, as the tenant farmer of the "9 1/2 acres or thereabouts situate in Cottenham Park Road and Cambridge Road" for an annual rent of £ 30.00.

 

29 June 1893

Mrs Turner gives her consent to Ben Richardson to "underlet" the land as allotments to the Local Board ( ie Wimbledon ) "in the event of the Local Board taking over the Richardson Agreement" (paying her the rent). This they agreed to do on 14 December 1893.

 

31 October 1898

Mrs Constance Melville of Durrington House, Cottenham Park Road either inherits or buys the land. (The Conveyance document is incomplete.)

 

10 May 1907

An indenture between Mrs Melville and the "Mayor, Aldermen and Burgesses of Wimbledon" in which Mrs Melville leases to the Corporation the 10 ½ acre site formerly forming part of the Cottenham Park Estate which "for some time past has been held by the Corporation or their predecessors for the purposes of allotment gardens". The Corporation agreed to the 1852 covenant and to Mrs Melville's new covenant that the land was not to be used for any other purposes than as allotment gardens for working men and that the allotments were to be let at as low a rent as possible to bona fide working men.

 

18 September 1919

Mrs Melville of South View, Grosvenor Hill, died. In her will, she left the land to Wimbledon Corporation.

 

3 October 1922

A conveyance : the land is given to Wimbledon Corporation by the Public Trustee subject to the restrictive covenants.