Famous allotment keepers - name 'em

Actual hands-in-the-dirt gardening has been a bit thin on the ground of late around Horticultural Towers, for various reasons I shan't bore you with. The rabbit issue, not surprisingly, remains extant, although I really liked the idea of rubber snakes as bunny scarers, suggested by the Patient Gardener.

In the meantime, here's a bit of fun for you: I discovered recently via this interesting piece in the Indie (this site is down as I write, though) on allotments around the world that Albert Einstein had an allotment*. He even received an untidy plot letter, apparently. 

So, aside from George Monbiot, can you name some famous allotmenteers? According to Wipkiedia (which is not always reliable), we can count Alan Titchmarsh and Charles Dance (really?) among our ranks. Surely there are more? (Imagine having the Titch as your plot neighbour ... intimidating or what?)

*Thanks to the Garden Monkey for pointing this one out.

UPDATE: I was delighted to hear from Brian King who confirmed that Alan Titchmarsh certainly had an allotment, even if he doesn't now. Over to Brian:

To confirm, Titchmarsh had a plot on our site - Sunningdale Allotments - from 1977-81 when he lived in the area (while he was working at Kew); he was young(er) and not yet famous [...] He subsequently returned several times during the mid to late 80s (when his name was known) to judge and to show solidarity with plot holders when the future of the site was temporarily threatened in the late 80s. There is a picture of a younger and leaner Titchmarsh on one of his visits. I hope that he does not have a plot now, having several acres of his own!

Brian, who maintains the excellent Sunningdale Allotments website, is encouraging people to write a history of their local allotment site. You can read more about his plea in the "wiki" section of the Allotments4All site (look for "history of allotments") so do go and check it out.

Comments

[The Garden Monkey]

I have to confess that the link was previously sent to me by that diamond, Alex at Shedworking

http://www.shedworking.co.uk/

As for famous - I guess that depends on your notion of fame. I know of:
Cleve West - Chelsea, Best in show winning designer and all round nice person.
Lila Das Gupta - Garden writer and force of nature.
Anita Pallenburg - proof that allotmenteering is the new rock & roll.

GM

[JamesA-S]

I like to think that Alan Arkin and Justin de Villeneuve have allotments (maybe even adjoining each other) but that is probably just idle fancy.

[Gareth Wall]

"one man and his dig":http://onemanandhisdig.blogspot.com/2008/03/men-in-flat-caps.html posted yesterday about John Humphrys having (once) had an allotment.

[rob]

Hi, I seem to remember that Paul O'Grady (Lily Savage) has one, along with some ex-battery hens. Watching him discuss this with HFW on his teatime chat show was a faintly surreal experience!