to his right the honorary secretary, Joseph Sabine, and to his left, head of the Society's gardens, John Turner. Turner did a splendid job gathering, planting and cataloguing specimens, but the year of this painting he fled to France having embezzled money from the Society. 2/2

What a lovely memory. Crab apples are such brilliant pollinators and were also grown in traditional mixed orchards to provide root stock for grafting experiments. I once saw a photo of a gorgeous orchard planted only with crab apples, of every flower and fruit colour. Oh to have the land!

I believe cooking apples, but the jury is out

Thank you for your kind words.

Very true

The consensus over on Twitter is that this is indeed Herbert and Edith Bryant!

Of course, but where plots are given up, for example by elderly people who have been struggling to keep them in good order, many Councils now lack the funds to clear and rotavate them as they used to ready for new tenants. This is a way in which some sites gradually fall into disrepair.

I agree with your second paragraph, but to claim that allotments are not under threat suggests to me that you're not an allotment holder and this is an area about which you have limited knowledge. Increased funding is (understandably, given other pressures) not filtering down to allotments!!

Wonderful to be able to put potential names to them!