The Plotlands – History No 2
What were the living conditions like here – The roads were unmade. Winter and wet weather made the avenues often impassable. By working together the Plotlanders constructed a pathway along the frontage of their houses, donating time and materials where the path crossed unoccupied plots. To bring the shopping home from Langdon they built trolleys based on old prams – called ‘basses’ – which exactly fitted the path.
There were limited mains services or, in some locations none at all. Water often came from wells, or from standpipes which were dotted around the area. A bucket in the shed served as a toilet, and the contents were emptied into a pit in the garden.
Plotlanders planted lots of fruit trees, had vegetable patches, kept geese, chickens, goats, rabbits, dogs, even bees.
The lane here was known as Stack Avenue if you are walking from the lakes up you will see from the cache location upwards, land that would have housed some of the larger properties. The three plots here were “Bracknell”, “Homestead”, and “Shanklin”, belonging to members of the Jenkins family, who were all keen on keeping chickens. The remains of the chicken houses can still be seen and the Reserve Warden has found the remains of the old chicken feeding equipment in the ground.