Leeds nostalgia: Down the allotments

Centenarian Frank Fairburn was busy tending to his Geraniums in 1969.

A far cry from when he helped to build the famous but ill-fated R101 airship.

Twenty four years ago in 1992 William Turner and his fellow gardeners were up in arms after having been told to quit the land that they had tended for over 40 years at Castleford.

Cultivating vegetables is not just for adults as 14-year-old Andrew Ivel showed in 1974 when he became one of the region’s top tomato growers.

A year later in 1975 the Rt Rev Ross Hook, Bishop of Bradford may well have had help from above with his cabbages (4) and in 1973 the Lord Mayor of Leeds Albert Smith was celebrating a ‘wonderful year’ with his magnificent crop.