South Yorkshire Times, August 4th 1933
Five Times Winner
Wombwell Allotments Champion
Annual Competition
Mr. A. Watson, 25, School Street, Wombwell, has set up a record which probably will never be equalled by winning for the fifth consecutive year the cup offered by the Wombwell Urban Council for the best cultivated allotment in the urban district. The Council put up the cup five years ago to encourage intensive garden culture, and no one but Mr. Watson has so far had possession of it. This year he tops the list with a margin of between 20 and 30 points. The judges were Mr. S. Missing, curator at Wombwell Cemetery. and Mr. T. Milner.
Originally the competition was confined to gardeners renting plots from the local authority. It is doubtful whether any other township in Yorkshire has so many allotment gardens in proportion to population. This year the. competition was extended to all allotment gardens, and Mr. Watson had a wider field to compete in. He rents a plot of about 600 square yards in the Summer Lane group. It is an end plot, behind the Rectory and complete privacy is an advantage. The plot has a south aspect, with the colder side protected by a row of hothouses, in which he grows tomatoes. The vines are well loaded at present. He is intensely proud of this part of his scheme of cultivation. He has a standing order for a supply to a number of local householders. The visitor to Mr. Watson’s garden finds the work of the expert everywhere, with everything of extraordinary size. The broad beans are at least a foot long, the cabbages as hard as rocks, and round and compact as footballs. You find that lettuce can bs grown to measure two feet across each root. When singling out his lettuce bed he allows eighteen inches to the right and left of each root. What is the secret of all this luxurious culture?
Mr. Watson says it lies in the preparation of the land. He regards his garden as his second home, and both he and Mrs. Watson spend practically all their spare time in it. Mr. Watson has been president of the old Wombwell Garden Protection Society for 80 years, and during that period he has been cultivating the same allotment, walking from his home in School Street. He is employed at Garfield Main. In a report on the competition, the Surveyor to the Wombwell U.D.C. (Mr. W. Quest) notes that most of the prizes are won by the same people year after year. This applies particularly to the best cultivated allotments. Most of this years’ prize-winners have won several years previously. There has been no outstanding improvement in the cultivation of allotments generally, and it is regretted that more people do not compete. Occupiers of privately owned have won three of the prizes this year. Following is a list of the successful allotment holders in the various groups.
Jump and Hemingfield: 1 Mr C. W. Williams. 2 Mr. H. Clarke. 3 Mr. J. Jackson.
New Scarboro’ and New Wool: 1 W. Fell, 2 Mr. C. Kipling, 3 Mr. E. Robinson.
John Street: 1 Mr. A. Lee. 2 Mr. T. Brown, 3 Mr. J. Mitchell.
Summer Lane: 1 Mr. A. Watson, 2 Mr. J. B. Winder, 3 Mr. E. Rodgers.
Hough Lane: 1 Mr. 1. Newham. 2 Mr. T. Donald, 3 Mr. H. Hilling.