Ellen was a furniture buyer and lived in a flat until she got furloughed. She moved back to live with her dad - Clive when he got ill. The allotment has helped them both but particularly her dad in getting well.

In 2020, England went into lockdown. Strict ‘rules’ were imposed on the whole population about what they could and could not do. A sense of fear prevailed with many people becoming worried about the immediate risk of being infected by the COVID-19 virus. Towns and cities emptied. Schools and universities closed. Shops and businesses shut their doors. Roads became silent, airlines grounded their planes. And an eerie peace settled across the country.

As the days turned into weeks and the sky turned clear blue, winter started to merge into spring. The sun blazed down but still the lockdown continued. The Government ‘rules’ allowed for only one period of exercise outside. Shopping for essentials was permitted but long queues developed and everyone was advised to keep two metres apart. Masks became de rigueur except for those who could not wear them for medical reasons. A new term entered our language – ‘Key Worker’. As the weeks turned into months, these essential workers were out and about. People worked from home, children studied on-line and many chose to remain in isolation. Looking back now at that we begin to realise that although isolation prevented the spread of the virus, a more sinister effect was the detriment to the mental health of many.

What does it mean to be human? We are all aware of our humanity to some extent. We know we have a range of qualities that set us apart from the rest of the animal Kingdom but also distinguish us from each other. We are alike and different. Further and closer examination reveals the similarities and differences and enables us to start to learn about people and their culture and practises. Sometimes these behaviours and qualities bring us nearer to those with them, sometimes it pushes us away. They can become the sources of love, care, hate or war. Points of view and beliefs help us to recognise where we want to be in terms of a group or community.

Some years ago I embarked on what can best be described as an anthropological photographic study of mankind. The aim was to seek out and understand the subgroups that exist in my country. I wanted to identify these groups and learn about them in terms of why the members had coalesced and what it was that they did that brought them together. I was interested in the origins of the group, the membership, the interconnections with other groups and the benefits gained from belonging. The study was based in England and was longitudinal in that I would spend extended periods of time gathering photographs about the groups.

Once I embarked on the project it became obvious that each group had cohesive properties that bound it together. The members were able to identify with each other and recognise the shared aims and goals. The engaged in shared enterprises, they were visually identifiable through activities, costume, clothing, totems, music, speech, and linguistic terminology. They could become extremely emotional and driven by a common belief of the group. This brought me to describe them as ‘tribes’ and the name of the project was born - Modern Tribes of England.

One small group of people managed to find a way of getting through the lockdown. I had been studying this group for several years. I called them Urban Agriculturalists. I was already aware of the benefits of growing food to well-being but the lockdown opened up an opportunity to discover other factors that contributed to positive mental health. I also found that engaging in this photography project along with a number of others made me feel positive. Thinking about why this was, I have come to realise that creative enterprise could be an important factor in surviving trauma and improving well-being. Ellen was a furniture buyer and lived in a flat until she got furloughed. She moved back to live with her dad - Clive when he got ill. The allotment has helped them both but particularly her dad in getting well.

One of the hardest parts of keeping an allotment is making sure it is fertile. The manager of the Hartwood allotments had a friend who owned a stable nearby. Once a fortnight a large delivery of horse manure would turn up in the car park and empty its contents onto the gravel drive. Then the allotmenteers would fill up their wheelbarrows and begin the hard graft of getting it down to their plots. It did not take long before the steaming pile was redistributed. The result what is that these were some of the most fertile allotment plots in the area and the free organic manure that enriched the soil rendered very good crops. I spent an afternoon watching allotmenteers do this and could see the camaraderie between them. It was another thing that added to the well-being of all those involved. And it helped them through the difficult time of lockdown.

Lockdown was a difficult time for many people in England. A common problem for many was living in a flat with no outside space and having to isolate. Some turned to owning an allotment as a means of getting out into the fresh air and doing something purposeful. I discovered this was the case with quite a few people who worked allotments near to where I lived at the time.

The other thing I discovered about the allotments was the way in which they tried to help each other. One example was a woman who got ill and was unable to get to her plot for many weeks. The weeds started to spring up, Then the stinging nettles and then the brambles. Ian, a manager of the allotments realised there was a problem and organised a group to go to her plot and tidy it up. I met Ian and the team on the day they began the work. He had acquired an old rotavator that he had spotted in a neighbour's garage and had taken it to pieces, reconditioned it and now provided it to anyone who could use it to improve the soil of their allotment. Within half an hour the whole plot had been turned over untilled ready for planting. This group effort reminded me of the barn building in the film - The Witness starring Harrison Ford.

Allotments are like a community within a community. As you walk through the plots you become aware that you are walking down roads. Instead of houses, there are plots with small sheds. Each shed becomes the world of the allotmenteer for the time they are present. The allotmenteers use their plots in a variety of ways. Some keep their tools in the shed. Some have a chair and a table and sit and listen to a radio. Many use it as an extension of their garden with deck chairs windbreaks and sun shades.

I was told about Nancy. During lockdown she wasn’t able to go into work. She was a baker and loved to make bread and cakes. She had an allotment and decided to open a little cafe. Not a commercial enterprise, just a place where other allotmenteers could come and get a coffee and have a chat. For those of you who remember lockdown, you will remember the shortages. One of the things that we couldn’t buy was flour but Nancy, being in the business had a large sack of it so she was able to make wonderful cakes. For many, this was a real treat because they could not go out to the shops and if they did, freshly baked goods were in short supply or absent completely. She did not charge for the things that were on offer. It was just a nice place to meet and she got a lot out of the human contact. Her plot was truly the heart of the allotments and she serviced a real need for people to come together during that difficult time.

I often used to see a woman walking past my house in the morning and then returning late afternoon. I wondered where she was going. Sometimes she carried a bag with what looked like vegetables in it so I assumed she’d been shopping. Once I started work on the allotment I bumped into her on her plot. Sally has lived nearby ever since she was a girl. During lockdown she treasured the opportunity to go to her allotment and get out in the fresh air and meet other allotmenteers. She felt she was able to escape the feeling of being isolated. This was typical of many of the people at the allotments.

As I already said earlier, people use their allotments for a variety of things, but mainly food production. It is not uncommon to find people keeping chickens or bees but when I was told about Andrew, I knew that I had to go and find him and see what it was he was doing. He originally lived in Poland where he worked as a farmer. He came to England and decided to stay. He lived in east London working in the building trade. His wife told me how they met. She had a small house and needed work doing to it. A friend told her about Andrew so she telephoned him and asked him to come round and do a quote. They hit it off and the rest is history. He moved out to Essex and together they got an allotment.

Twice a year, Andrew would buy a pig and make his special sausages. He had built a smoker on his allotment so he could smoke the sausages. He also smoked hams using the age-old tradition of oak chips. Smoking would take a couple of hours so I went away to photograph other things on the allotment and then came back when the sausages were ready. I found Andrew in his shed cooking the sausages and having a can of Polish beer. He invited me to join him. You have never tasted such sausages.

Let’s not get too far away from what is involved in holding an allotment. It is farming on a small scale. Work can be hard graft because there are very few machines to assist. It is a case of using a spade and fork to do the heavy work. It can also be backbreaking and play havoc on your knees. I don’t mean to paint the wrong kind of picture. Physical work can be good for you and certainly seeing the fruits of your efforts during harvest can be very pleasing.

The wheelbarrow is one of those great inventions. It enables us to move large quantities across distances that would be difficult if you had to carry a couple of buckets. It can also reduce the amount of time. Mark and Sue barrowed manure to their allotment. They were a good example of people who were using this opportunity as a way of getting out of their house during lockdown. They had turned isolation into something really positive.