The Land Settlement Association was a UK Government scheme set up in 1934, with help from the charities the Plunkett Foundation and the Carnegie Trust, to re-settle unemployed workers from depressed industrial areas,"Land Settlement Association", Museum of English Rural Life, University of Reading. Retrieved 7 March 2024 particularly from North-East England and Wales. Between 1934 and 1939 1,100 small-holdings were established within 20 settlements."Presenting Rurality: the Land Settlement Association in interwar England by Alex Arnall" Retrieved 7 March 2024"Land Settlement Association", Severne. Retrieved 12 Oct 2025 A further five settlements of "Cottage Homesteads" of about half an acre were established from 1937 for unemployed men, who could continue to claim assistance.
Settlements were set up in rural areas where each successful applicant’s family would be given a small-holding of approximately , 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.Archived at Ghostarchive and the Wayback Machine:
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."Land Settlement Association. Oral Answers to Questions — Unemployment" (All Commons debates on 23 Nov 1939); TheyWorkForYou.com. Retrieved 18 August 2011 After the war the Association continued, encouraging people who wanted to work in horticulture or agriculture. 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."The Land Battle" Shaun Chamberlin, Country Smallholding, January 2013. Retrieved 24 May 2015 The residual assets of the scheme were constituted as the LSA Charitable Trust,"LSA Charitable Trust website". Retrieved 28 December 2012 for the benefit of former tenants and to promote horticultural education."LSA Charitable Trust (Guidance Notes)" Grants for Horticulturists. Retrieved 29 June 2012
Settlements Land Settlement Association small-holding settlements were situated at: Abington, Cambridgeshire"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 Andover, Hampshire"The Land Settlement Association and Little Park" , Abbots Ann and Little Ann web site. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Broadwath, Cumbria"Land Settlement Association", Cumbria County Council - Archives. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Chawston, Bedfordshire, Wyboston, Chawston and Colesden Parish, Community Web Site. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Crofton, Cumbria"Crofton", visitoruk.com. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Dalston, CumbriaBurdett, Anna; "Whatever Happened to Cumbriam Strawberries" , The Cumberland News 21 July 2009. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Duxbury, LancashireHayward, Stuart; "Oxcroft Settlement" in Bolsover a Ripple in Time, p.63. Retrieved 18 August 2021 Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire"Elmesthorpe", quoting The Leicestershire & Rutland Village Book, Leicestershire & Rutland Federation of Women's Institutes, Countryside Books. Retrieved 10 January 2019 Fen Drayton, Cambridgeshire"Fen Drayton Former Land Settlement Association Estate SPD" , South Cambridgeshire District Council. Retrieved 18 August 2011"New zero-carbon homes vision for village settlement" , Cambridge News 18 October 2010. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Foxash, Essex Bercaw, Louise Oldham; "Bibliography on Land Utilization 1918-36"; p. 1011 Fulney, Lincolnshire"Thornholme Grange", National Monuments Record. English Heritage. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Harrowby, Lincolnshire"The Harrowby Land Settlement", Domesday Reloaded, BBC. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Newbourne, SuffolkSloane, Rachel; "Newbourne", BBC: Suffolk, 11 June 2008. Retrieved 18 August 2011 Newent, Gloucestershire"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 Oxcroft, Derbyshire"The Oxcroft Settlement", Victoria County History, "The Oxcroft Settlement was the only project of its kind in Derbyshire, and one of only two in England initiated by a county council". Retrieved 7 November 2017 Potton, Bedfordshire,"Land Settlement Association", peterclarke.com (Dr Peter Clarke). Retrieved 18 August 2011 Sidlesham, Sussex"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 Snaith, Yorkshire Stannington, Northumberland"Closure of four Northern Land Settlement Association Estates...", The National Archives. Retrieved 18 August 2021. Yeldham, EssexEssex Society for Archaeology and History Newsletter 154 Spring 2008 https://www.esah1852.org.uk/library/files/N1145160.pdf Land Settlement Association Cottage Homestead settlements were situated at:Annual Report of the Land Settlement Association 1937 Cosby, Leicestershire Long Lawford, Warwickshire Dunstable, Bedfordshire Caversham, Berkshire Elmesthorpe, Leicestershire
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