SERRIED ranks of beetroot, broad beans, onions and potatoes stand to attention in the summer sunshine as their commanding officer approaches on a tour of inspection.

John Davies’ allotment is a picture of regimental neatness and order, with hardly a weed blemishing the surface of the soil.

But then what John doesn’t know about vegetable growing, you can probably fit on the back of a seed packet. After all, he’s the longest- serving plot holder at Hexham’s Quatre Bras allotments, having committed 50 years of his life to careful cultivation.

The allotments themselves, owned by Hexham Town Council, have been offering townsfolk the chance to grow their own for a century now and last weekend, the Quatre Bras Allotment Assocation, which represents the plot holders here, held an anniversary celebration attended by the mayor Coun. Tom Gillanders.

The land at the top of Eilansgate, once an orchard, was first made available in response to food shortages during the First World War, but when John signed up for his plot in the sixties, it was purely for the love of gardening.

“I did gardening at Shaftoe Trust School in Haydon Bridge and I developed an interest then. So when my wife, Maureen, and I got married it was natural to get an allotment. We have a garden at home and Maureen does the garden and I grow here for the pot.”

Like having a shed (and yes, John has one at Quatre Bras), having an allotment can be a recipe for marital harmony.

Female allotment owners are on the increase however. Indeed, John believes that’s the biggest change there’s been over the five decades he’s been growing.

“Fifty years ago there wasn’t a single woman here,” he says.

“Of course, wives might come and work with their husbands on their plots, but females didn’t tend to take them on in their own right.”

Thankfully, all that has changed. John’s neighbour on the next door plot, Jenny Myles, was attracted by the possibility of working a half plot. In recent years, the council has split quite a few of the allotments at Quatre Bras into halves as people sometimes find that a whole one demands too much time.

Unlike John, Jenny is not retired and so has limited time to devote to her gardening.

She says: “This was just a mud flat when I first came, full of tin cans and old barrels. You would frequently dig up stems of old clay pipes and you could imagine all these old men with their pipes clamped between their teeth as they worked.”

But women are much more well-represented now and will find a warm welcome. “John was really helpful when I first came, in fact everyone is friendly and happy to share their knowledge,” Jenny says.

Lindsay Sails is treasurer of the Quatre Bras Allotment Association, and shares a full plot with her husband, Andrew, and their two daughters, Lily Mae, 10 and Jess, 12.

“When we first moved to Hexham we didn’t have a garden and we thought it would be great for the kids to be outside and learn where their food came from and it’s progressed from there,” she says.

It’s a real family affair for the Sails’. The girls have their own strawberry and wildflower patch and there’s a trampoline at the top of their plot for when they fancy a break.

Lindsay keeps hens and they have a summer house and a polytunnel packed with mouth-watering produce.

“Andrew is a fanatic chilli grower,” Lindsay says, pointing to a whole variety of chilli plants. “We say to him, ‘Surely chillis are chillis’ but he says, ‘You don’t go into a shop and just ask for a jar of jam do you? It’s the same with chillis.’”

“The polytunnel means we can start growing things a lot earlier and we like to try a couple of new things each year,” Lindsay says.

So alongside some rather large sweetcorn and tomato plants, they are currently having a go at chickpeas, soya beans, asparagus peas and something called a ‘cucumelon’.

“It looks like a grape but tastes of cucumber. The kids like them, they just pull them off the bushes and eat away.”

Whilst an allotment doesn’t automatically spell self-sufficiency, it is money-saving says Lindsay. “When we get a bulk of fruit we make jams and chutneys and any surplus goes into alcohol - raspberry gin for example or rhubarb vodka. I have a rule that everything that’s picked has to pass through the kitchen so it will get used some way or another.”

Other allotmenteers grow for showing. Keith Ross at Plot 31 has been raking in awards for quite a few years now.

“When I first got the allotment 35 years ago it was for the family and I was growing to eat but after a few years I got started with growing to show,” he says.

He started off with one leek trench and found he did quite well and now his allotment resembles a small market garden with three polytunnels, three greenhouses and a couple of old bath tubs he uses for cleaning off his produce.

“It’s local shows I enter mainly - Corbridge, Slaley, Blanchland and Allendale are favourites. My dad used to show vegetables and flowers and I used to go along and help him set up so I suppose it was bred into me. Even though it’s competitive, it’s very friendly and people are willing to tell you whatever you want.”

Association chairman, Andrew Robinson, is another allotmenteer who grows to show. In fact, away from his day job as a partner in accountancy firm, Armstrong Watson, he’s a national dahlia champion. His whole plot is given over to nurturing the next big winner.

“I’m a dahlia nut,” he confesses - indeed he travels all over the north of England talking to other gardening associations about his passion for these beautiful plants and is treasurer of the Northumberland and Durham Chrysanthemum and Dahlia Society.

Andrew says people take on allotments for all sorts of reasons.

“There’s much more interest in growing your own and having a plot of land,” he says. “Fifteen years ago there were empty plots but now there’s a waiting list (currently standing at 18 for 103 plots). Some people like to have an ornamental garden at home so it’s not conducive to veg and some people only have a bit of back yard and want to grow a bit of their own food and then some us just grow flowers.”

So what would he say to would-be allotmenteers?

“It’s good fun, it’s outdoors. Come and join us!”