St Annes man still tending to his allotment after 60 years

A green-fingered 90-year-old from St Annes says it has been his simple love of gardening keeping him at his allotment plot for more than six decades.
Alan Speakman on his allotment plot.Alan Speakman on his allotment plot.
Alan Speakman on his allotment plot.

Alan Speakman spends three days a week at his plot on David’s Slack Allotments in Grange Park.

The retired joiner and gas board worker says the area has changed since he first started tending to his vegetables at the Newton Drive site in 1957.

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He said: “It was all fields when I first came here and everyone came on bicycles and wore cloth caps.

Alan Speakman on his allotment plot.Alan Speakman on his allotment plot.
Alan Speakman on his allotment plot.

“I’ve always enjoyed gardening and it gives me something to do during the week when my wife Hilda is busy.”

Alan, who has two sons and four grandchildren, explained how the site was part of Whinney Heys Farm and both Blackpool Victoria Hospital and Stanley Park Golf Club were built on the old farm land.

He says he has no plans to down his garden tools anytime soon.

He said: “More people than ever before are on the site now and there is a waiting list to get a plot.

“I’ll be here for as long as I fit and able to.”

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