Stories from Ashley Vale Allotment Association, commissioned by AVAA, published 2025.

This book tells the history of Ashley Vale Allotments (AVA) through stories and pictures. The Ashley Vale Allotment Association (AVAA) managed the allotments from 1917 before handing over admin responsibilities to the St Werburghs City Farm in 2003. AVAA is still actively improving the site as well as organising social and skills sharing events.

The book is dedicated to Maggie Moss, who collected a considerable amount of archive material for AVAA’s centenary in 2017. We sadly lost Maggie to cancer in 2021, but her family recognised her commitment to, and love for the allotments with a generous donation. AVAA decided that an appropriate use of the money would be to create a book to remember Maggie and her substantial contribution to the allotment community.

The committee approached me as a long-term plot holder and someone who had created and published several books about the local area. The book contains exhibition panels from AVAA’s Centenary exhibition and contributions from the allotment community.