There’s a chalet field colony of about 50 huts on the banks of the River Dee where it forms the border between Wales and England near Farndon in Cheshire. Last month I walked along part of the river and took some pictures. Many of the huts look like survivors from the pre-War (pre Town and Country Planning Act) boom in plotland developments, including the Thames-side examples described in “Arcadia for All” that I reviewed in my last post. There are also some modern styles, including Scandinavian squared-log cabins and a scattering of static caravans.
Pre-War style hut next to squared-log cabin built from a kit. (I think the kit cabin is Ricky Tomlinson’s one.) :
A view of huts, chalets, and static caravans on the almost-island in an oxbow in the river:
These two are among the fishery ponds at the north west end of Townfield Lane:
A substantial bungalow that looks as if it’s grown by extensions from a smaller hut:
A hut and outbuildings, including a greenhouse in a clump of tree, with its own jetty and boats:
More modern huts, including one built up higher to avoid the risk of flooding:
You can see the distribution of the huts from this Google Maps aerial view. Most are by the oxbow bends in the river at the north west end of Townfield Lane and the fishery ponds, but they continue along the river in the direction of Farndon itself to the south east:
I found out about this colony of huts from Bobby Seal’s post on his Psychogeographic Review blog which has many more pictures from along this stretch of river.
I think this is a great piece on a fascinating subject. I’ve got to know a local artist who lives in one of the chalets. She’s planning to write a history of the plotlanders and has kindly invited me to help – I’ll keep you posted.
Thanks, I’d really appreciate that!
Bobby did an update post about the chalets in April: http://psychogeographicreview.com/return-to-the-chalets/
The name Townfield Lane is a link to an earlier communal use of the site.