Port Meadow Halt. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
Port Meadow Halt. Click on the photo to see a larger version.
The Trap Ground allotments are in north Oxford. They lie between the Oxford Canal and the River Thames, bordering the railway line. They are next to Port Meadow and Burgess Fields and, as such, there are excellent views in several directions from all parts of the site. The allotments are accessible from Aristotle Lane via an unmanned railway crossing, and from Port Meadow. The site lies in the flood plain and, during unusually heavy periods of rain in the winter, some of the plots may be under water for short periods. The unprecedented July 2007 floods along the Thames led to substantial flooding on the allotment site.
by Gillian Skyte
In common with other allotments, the site was used as a municipal refuse tip mainly prior to the 1914-1918 war, but part of the site was still tipped in the 1950s. Garden soil brought in horse-drawn carts from various sites in Oxford was used to cap the tip, but the ground still contains scraps of debris and associated pollutants typical of urban soils.
Being in an area of hard water, pollutants are relatively insoluble and not readily available to plants; the water itself is unpolluted. To monitor this, the whole site was sampled in the 1990s, every plot having a soil core removed for analysis to establish levels of characteristic pollutant materials.
Results showed that all are at acceptable levels for gardening so long as certain precautionary measures are taken:
This amounts to a cook's conventional hygiene - thorough scrubbing of potatoes, carrots, and so on being practised by most of us.
The site has seen significant changes since the 1939-1945 war. These include a huge growth in the varieties of crops grown, the fact that allotmenting was almost exclusively a male hobby after the war, the cost of renting a plot - less than £1 a year in the 1940s - and the fact that right up to the 1960s, there was never a weed on the site. Plot-holders were ejected if their plots were not immaculately maintained. One thing that has not changed is animal and bird life eating our crops. Rabbits, pheasants, pigeons and even rats were very common in the old days. As recently as 25 years ago, cattle wandering onto the allotments from Port Meadow were a constant problem.
A satellite view of the allotments, courtesy of googleearth. Click on the image to open this view in google local.
There are around 160 plots and half-plots on the site. A standard plot is traditionally 11 poles - an ancient measure probably only used in allotments today.
There is no mains water on the site but we do have the "luxury" of wells. These are between two and three metres deep. Not every plot has a well, but all wells are for the collective use of plot-holders. Additional wells may be dug with the permission of the committee.
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