Land Settlement Association

The Land Settlement Association was a UK Government scheme set up in 1934, with help from the charities Plunkett Foundation and Carnegie Trust, to re-settle unemployed workers from depressed industrial areas of Britain,^[1] particularly from North-East England and Wales. Between 1934 and 1939 1,100 small-holdings were established within 26 settlements.^[2][3][4]

LSA cottage at The Abingtons

Settlements were set up in rural areas where each successful applicant’s family would be given a small-holding of approximately 5 acres (0.020 km²), livestock and a newly built cottage. Small-holdings were grouped in communities which were expected to run agricultural production as cooperative market gardens, with materials bought and produce sold exclusively through the Association. Applicants were vetted and given agricultural training before being assigned a property.^[1]

The allocation of settlements to the unemployed was suspended at the outbreak of the Second World War through the necessity of increasing food production; favour was given to those already with horticultural skills.^[5] After the war the Association was incorporated within a County Council scheme for statutory provision of smallholdings designed as a first step for those going into agricultural production.^[6] The scheme was wound-up and all the properties privatised in 1983, by which time it was producing roughly 40% of English home grown salad crops.^[1][7] The residual assets of the scheme were constituted as the LSA Charitable Trust,^[8] for the benefit of former tenants and to promote horticultural education.^[9]

Settlements

Land Settlement Association settlements included:

• Abbotts Ann,^[10]
• Boverton,^[11]
• Broadwath^[12]
• Crofton^[12][13]
• Dalston^[12][14]
• Dunstable,^[15]
• Fen Drayton,^[16][17]
• Lawford and Ardleigh,^[18]
• Harrowby,^[19]
• Low Fulney,^[20]
• Newbourne,^[21]
• Newent,^[22]
• Potton,^[6]
• Sidlesham,^[23]
• The Abingtons,^[24]
• Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden^[25]

References

1. "Land Settlement Association", University of Reading. Retrieved 18 August 2011
2. "The Land Settlement Association (LSA) The return of the unemployed to the land. 1934 – 1939", Dr Peter Clarke. Retrieved 18 August 2011
3. "Land Settlement Association", Northampton Square. Retrieved 18 August 2011
4. Clarke, Peter; "The Land Settlement Association returned nearly 1,000 unemployed men to the land in the 1930s", Northampton Square, 29 July 2011. Retrieved 18 August 2011
5. "Land Settlement Association. Oral Answers to Questions — Unemployment" (All Commons debates on 23 Nov 1939); TheyWorkForYou.com. Retrieved 18 August 2011
6. "Land Settlement Association", peterclarke.com (Dr Peter Clarke). Retrieved 18 August 2011
7. "The Land Battle" Shaun Chamberlin, Country Smallholding, January 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2015
8. "LSA Charitable Trust website. Retrieved 28 December 2012
9. "LSA Charitable Trust (Guidance Notes)" Grants for Horticulturists. Retrieved 29 June 2012
10. "The Land Settlement Association and Little Park", Abbots Ann and Little Ann web site. Retrieved 18 August 2011
11. "Boverton Land Settlement scheme", TUC History Online. Retrieved 18 August 2011
12. "Land Settlement Association", Cumbria County Council - Archives. Retrieved 18 August 2011
13. "Crofton", visitoruk.com. Retrieved 18 August 2011
14. Burdett, Anna; "Whatever Happened to Cumbriam Strawberries", The Cumberland News 21 July 2009. Retrieved 18 August 2011
15. Walded, R. (1999); Streets Ahead: An Illustrated Guide to the Street Names of Dunstable; pp. 266–268, 275, 282; The Book Castle; ISBN 1-871199-59-X
16. "Fen Drayton Former Land Settlement Association Estate SPD", South Cambridgeshire District Council. Retrieved 18 August 2011
17. "New zero-carbon homes vision for village settlement", Cambridge News 18 October 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2011
18. Bercaw, Louise Oldham; "Bibliography on Land Utilization 1918-36"; p. 1011
19. "The Harrowby Land Settlement", Domesday Reloaded, BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2011
20. "Thornholme Grange", National Monuments Record. English Heritage. Retrieved 18 August 2011
21. Sloane, Rachel; "Newbourne", BBC: Suffolk, 11 June 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2011
22. "A History of the County of Gloucester vol.12 Newent and May Hill", British Association for Local History: "The Land Settlement Association also built 57 chalet bungalows from 1937 on an estate at The Scarr, Newent, most of which retain their distinctive appearance". Retrieved 18 August 2011
23. "Sidlesham, West Sussex", Kelly's Directory 1938: "During 1935, 800 acres of land were acquired by the Land Settlement Association Ltd. To provide smallholdings for men from the distressed areas of Northumberland & Durham". Retrieved 18 August 2011
24. "Great and Little Abington", British History Online, para 5: "In Great Abington from the 1930s the Land Settlement Association built c. 45 houses to a standard design along roads laid out across the middle of the parish". Retrieved 18 August 2011
25. "Chawston", Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden Parish, Community Web Site. Retrieved 18 August 2011