legends · 3 min read ·
Plot 12
An allotment society's minutes record a vacant plot that is cultivated every night by the same unseen tenants.
**Greenfield Allotment Society — Committee Meeting Minutes, 4 September**
**Present:** Chair (E. Hallett), Secretary (M. Boyd), Treasurer (R. Sinha), plot representatives for sites A–D (11 members in all)
**Item 3: Vacant plots.** There are two vacant plots on site A. Plot 9 is overgrown and will be re-let. **Plot 12 has been vacant since 1998. It remains unlet.** The Secretary noted that the waiting list is 63 names long and asked why Plot 12 had not been offered. The Chair said it was a matter of history. The matter was not pursued.
· · ·
**Plot inspection form — Site A (M. Boyd, 20 September)**
- **Plot · Tenant · Condition · Notes**
- 8 · Mr. Peel · Good · Beans, leeks
- 9 · (vacant) · Overgrown · To be cleared
- 10 · Mrs. Okoro · Good · Squash, dahlias
- 11 · Mr. Frane · Fair · Needs weeding
- 12 · (vacant) · **Cultivated** · **Crops present. See note.**
*Note: Plot 12 is in full cultivation. Rows of potatoes, onions, kale, runner beans on canes. The soil is dark and fine. I have not seen anyone working it.*
· · ·
**Committee meeting minutes, 2 October**
**Item 2: Plot 12.** The Secretary reported that the vacant plot is yielding a crop. The Chair said that plots could not be unlet and productive at once. Mr. Peel said he had seen the plot tended at night, by torchlight. A figure was bent over a row of beans. He called out and the figure straightened and raised one hand, as if to say *all is well.*
**Item 3.** The Treasurer pointed out that the plot's water meter has been running. Usage this quarter: 38,000 litres. Plot 12 has no tap.
The meeting agreed that Plot 12 should be inspected formally by two members.
· · ·
**Inspection report — Plot 12 (E. Hallett, R. Sinha, 9 October)**
We visited the plot at 18:00. No one was there. The plot is the best on the site. The beds are edged with weathered boards, the paths are weed-free, and the soil is the colour of strong tea. The potatoes had been lifted. They lay in rows, washed, graded by size, in wooden trays.
Mr. Sinha counted the trays. There were twelve. Each was labelled on the end in careful block capitals with the name of a plot-holder: Peel, Okoro, Frane, and others. Each tray had been placed outside the plot gate, as a gift is placed at a door.
At the bottom of the plot, by the compost bins, there was a wooden stake. It had been driven in recently. A tin plate was nailed to the top, stamped with a number.
*12.*
· · ·
**Letter to the Committee (anonymous, received 14 October, handwritten)**
*I used to hold Plot 12. I was the last tenant. In 1998 I stopped coming. I will not say why. I wish to say that the plot was never vacant. It was kept by its previous holders, one after another, each of them coming at night, each of them bending over the same rows, and each of them staying.*
*The council took the plot out of the register after I left because the figures wouldn't add up. Eleven tenants on the site, twelve plots, and a thirteenth hand always working.*
*Give Plot 12 to no one. Eat what is left at the gate if you must. But do not go in.*
· · ·
**Committee meeting minutes, 6 November**
**Item 1.** The Chair reported that a new application has been received for Plot 12. The applicant is a Mr. A. Doyle, of 4 Ford Lane. The application is dated 1 November and signed. He is not on the waiting list.
**Item 2.** The Treasurer reported that the rent for Plot 12 has been paid in full for the year ahead, in cash, in an envelope on the Secretary's doorstep. The Secretary has not seen who left it.
**Item 3.** After discussion, the committee voted on whether to let the plot to Mr. Doyle. For: 12. Against: 0.
The committee has eleven members.