When a town’s oldest allotment site was set up 200 years ago, working the ground on a Sunday was banned, people in trouble with the law were thrown off and rent was just a shilling a year.

The Loughton Potato Ground allotments in Baldwin’s Hill – the second oldest in the country – were given to the Rev Anthony Hamilton of St Nicholas’ church by Anne Whitaker on May 13 1813 for the town’s poor to grow food for their families.

A history of the allotments written in 1928 by Percy Thompson and transcribed by historian Richard Morris says one holder, a W Parrish, lost his plot when he was convicted for poaching in 1859.

John Feast was also thrown off the site in 1860 for the same offence and a W Philpot had to give up his allotment in the same year after he was sent to prison.

Three years later, James Bacon was prosecuted for stealing turnips from one of the plots.

Brian Smith, who won the town council’s best allotment award last year and writes a column for the Potato Ground’s website, said: “It was started to keep the poor of the town from getting involved in licentious activities.

“You were not allowed sheds because you might have alcohol there or use them for a smoking den.

“On top of that, you were not allowed bonfires on washday and you couldn’t work your allotment on a Sunday because you were supposed to be in church.

“There are still no sheds and that’s why the place looks so neat.”

Rent on the site is now £15 a year per plot and holders have branched out from growing potatoes and turnips to planting a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, including squashes, sweet potatoes and garlic.

Growers over the years have included the Willingale family, whose member Thomas Willingale fought for the rights of poor loppers to collect wood from Epping Forest in 1860.

Thomas Sear, a member of the Higgins family, which went on to found the building company still in the town, also held a plot there, as did novelist Ruth Rendell, who grew up in the town and attended Loughton County High School for Girls.

Allotment expert Diane Rhodes has traced some of the site’s growers through local records and also tracked down a First World War soldier among them.

She said: “Many other local names that are still seen around today took the plots.

“Some allotments passed through families for several generations.”

The committee that now runs the Potato Ground is organising celebrations for growers this June to mark the bicentenary, including photography and scarecrow competitions.

Mr Smith said: “It’s very sociable. It’s quite good to chat to people about problems and things that come up.

“It’s a very friendly place to be.”

For more information on the allotments, visit http://loughtonpotatoground.wordpress.com.