Joan Mcconn
As chair of the Kingston Federation of Allotment Gardeners (KFAG), Joan McConn is well placed to comment on the role of the allotment within the Kingston area and its impact on society. In a wide ranging interview, Joan harks back to memories of her father’s allotment while growing up in Liverpool, details her own history with owning a plot herself - including its significance to her marriage - and runs us through the wide variety of occasionally weird and wonderful vegetables she has grown on her own Addison Gardens plot in Surbiton. Joan also explains more about the aims and purpose of KFAG, which she helped to establish 12 years ago.
“We had to do a marriage preparation course - one of the things we were asked to do was write down on a piece of paper the thing we most like doing with our partner. When we read them out we’d both written working on the allotment together.”
Interview conducted by Grow for Good Oral History volunteer