A measured day’s work
Well, Joe and I spent 5 hours on the allotment yesterday and we managed to clear most of the bramble and high-standing weeds. Basically, we got the plot back to the condition I got it at almost exactly twelve months ago with a little extra clearing right at the back. So we have made some progress. I think Joe and Jun are going back again with Jiji (Japanese grandad) tomorrow for some more work.
Regarding the issue of allotment space, I took some measurements and made some calculations and came up with the following:
Our plot is officially 295 yd2, that’s 2665 ft2 . The length of our plot - and our neighbor’s - is almost exactly 121ft. This means, everything else being equal, our plot should be roughly 121 ft x 21.9 ft.
Our plot is one of four in an open-plan area surrounded by four fixed boundaries. We all have a well defined entrance border and a far-end perimiter, but only two of us have a fixed boundary to the side. Ours happens to be on the left. I have adopted the logic that to measure the plots accurately we must start from either one of these fixed edges. I chose to measure out our plot from the left side fence which as I was told by the Allotment manager, belongs to my left-side neighbor. And this I did.
As this was not an attempt to secure myself and my family the largest possible piece of land - just to measure the plots fairly and accurately - I took a measurement of 21ft at regular intervals from the boundary fence to the opposite side. As mentioned earlier, the boundary fence is not straight, so my perimeter line is now equally rugged - but fair.
I think perhaps my new neighbour took a slightly different approach and did not account for the variations in the extreme perimeters. The results is that my line crosses over his (marked by three small sticks and a lose peice of string along the whole 121ft) in several places. At the start very much in his favour. But curiously as we reach the end, significantly more so in our favour.
By measuring our plot in this way, my intention was not to start some Allotment War over ownership of land and property. For this reason I factored in a significant margin for error and effectively surrendered more than 108 ft2 of our portion.
The pear tree? Well, this was actually a little tricky to determine as the perimeter fence at the far end starts to lose its way somewhat. From what I could tell though, the tree lies between 17 ft and at a push 21 ft (coincidentally) from the fence….
I stopped my perimeter line short of tree, as did our neighbour. I thought it best that we leave that for friendly discussion if there is any disagreement. In any event its close enough to either side for me to be happy to declare the tree a Public Asset and help care for it on behalf of Levenshulme Allotment Society 
