1. Sample

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1. SAMPLE

1.1 The sample chosen for this Inquiry was a purposive one, consisting of 750 interviews in each of four Regions, North, Midlands, East and South-East (including London) and South, South-West and Wales. The Interviews were not distributed in proportion to the population of each Region, since this would have resulted in two regions having a sample too small to give reliable results.

The Interviews were to be divided within each Region as follows:-

1.	250 Allotment Holders
2.	250 Gardeners
3.	50 Women Allotment Holders

The Allotment Holders were chosen at random from the lists of Allotment Holders held by the Local Authorities or Allotment Association Secretaries, and visited at home or on their allotments.

In the case of gardeners, the Local Authorities were asked to indicate a number of streets in the town where the houses had gardens measuring at least 20’ x 40’. The investigator visited these streets and visited the houses at random.

Women allotment holders were taken whenever there was a number on the Local Authorities’ lists, but in all cases it was found impossible to complete the quota in the Region. Those obtained in this way did help, however, to provide a sufficient number of women allotment holders for their problems to be discussed separately.

1.2 The final representation of Allotment Holders and Gardeners in the sample was as follows:-

1.	Allotment Holders	1267
2.	Gardeners	1240
3.	Both	475
TOTAL		2982

Of those who had gardens, 61 did not cultivate anything in them, and were, therefore, unable to reply to the remainder of the questionnaire. This reduces the total sample to 2921 from Question 10 onward.

1.3 This total was divided between the Regions as follows:-

1.	Northern England	760
2.	Midlands	649
3.	London, East & S. East	784
4.	South, S. West & Wales	728
		2921

1.4 The sample was divided into:-

1.	Urban	2567
2.	Rural	354
		2921

1.5 The Occupation of each person interviewed was asked, and these occupations were then gathered together in six main groups -

1.	Unskilled Manual This included labourers, Porters Garage Hands, Coal Heavers, Factory Hands, etc.	636
2.	Skilled Manual This included Electricians Mechanics, Carpenters, Drillers, Plumbers, Spinners, etc	766
3.	Unskilled Clerical This included lower grade Clerks, Store Keepers, Shop Assistants, Insurance men, and other non-manual Workers.	671
4.	Skilled Clerical This included Business Managers, Education Officers, Clergymen, Lecturers, Managing Clerks, Company Directors, etc.	152

5.	Housewives These were all at home and not working. They were responsible for the garden or allotment concerned.	342
6.	Retired and Unoccupied Mainly elderly men	324
7.	Unclassified	30
		2921

1.6 The sex of the cultivators was recorded and on analysis is as follows:-

Men	2409
Women	501
Male Children (Under 16)	11
Female Children (Under 16)	-
	2921

Among the women 183 cultivated allotments.

1.7 Family sizes were grouped in this way:-

Family Size	1 - 3	1405
Family Size	4 - 7	1416
Family Size	7 & Over	75
	Unclassified	25
		2921

1.8 Fifty-two towns in England and Wales were visited during the course of the survey and a list, region by region, is given below:-

Region.	North	East & S. East
	Newcastle	Norwich
	Sunderland	Ipswich
	Carlisle	Chelmsford
	Middlesborough	Brighton
	Darlington	Watford
	Liverpool	Guildford
	Manchester	Horsham
	Bolton	London:-
	Chester	Ilford
	Warrington	Ealing
	Leeds	Lewisham
	York	Bromley
	Sheffield	Wandsworth
	Midlands	South, S. West & Wales
	Chesterfield	Cardiff
	Lincoln	Swansea
	Birmingham	Newport
	Wolverhampton	Hereford
	Leicester	Gloucester
	Northampton	Bristol
	Derby	Reading
	Nottingham	Portsmouth
	Peterborough	Swindon
	Stoke	Yeovil
	Shrewsbury	Taunton
		Truro
		Exeter

The quota for each town varied between 60 interviews in the largest, and 40 in the smallest.

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