Principles of Land Settlement

The Land Settlement Association (LSA) based its work on its Principles of Land Settlement. If smallholdings were based on these Principles they had the best chance of success.

The Principles of Land Settlement were born of the circumstances of the time. In the case of the LSA this was the experience of the post Great War soldier and sailor land settlement and twenty five years of settlement activity by the County Councils. By the time the LSA was established in 1934 there were many small land based schemes for the unemployed. These were largely small scale, providing vegetables, eggs and pork to supplement the diets of the unemployed families involved. In the eyes of the LSA many were close to subsistence agriculture. They felt a more full-hearted experiment was needed to test the commercial viability of the large scale colony of smallholdings.

There were four key principles:

Group settlement. No assistance would be given individual smallholders

Co-operation was “essential” for the purchase of requisites, the marketing of produce and the general working of the scheme

There would be “rigid” selection of settlers, and this would involve both the men and their wives

Training and supervision was “essential.”