First allotment, absolutely overgrown - Making good progress!

You seem to have it sorted out.    If it were mine I would use my cordless strimmer, loppers and shears on it and get it down short with my cordless lawnmower. The excess vegetation would be thrown in a pile for later removal to the dump or to burn. (too many weeds and roots to compost) I would measure the plot out and work out the best way to place things.  I would then mark the plot out with string and have beds marked for digging.  I would then cover the beds with plastic until I could deal with them, and dig as and when adding manure. Sheds and greenhouses would be incorporated into my design of course.  Then as your ideas develop so will your plot.  My plot looks nothing like it did when I started.  It evolves. 

My advise - tackle one thing at a time.  And be organised.

You’ll get as many suggestions as there are allotmenteers, but mine would be to look at Charles Downing, ‘no dig’ website. We inherited a very weedy allotment, strimmed it all right down then put black weed suppressing membrane over as much of it as we could. Charles Downing doesn’t advocate the membrane but we found it incredibly good - it lets in water but not light so the weeds die off. If you put it down soon, you will have made a good start of killing most weeds by next spring. We then marked out where we wanted beds, and made raised beds with lots of well rotted manure, having put cardboard at the bottom of the bed to further suppress the weeds. We used the membrane to cover the paths so we dont have to keep weeding them.
We started planting into the beds this spring and I am delighted! I genuinely have far fewer weeds than any of my longstanding neighbours. The only weed that has kept going is bindweed, but even that is far easier to pull up and weaken over time.
Reading your post, you would have to get the brambles out at the root as they would push the membrane up, but other weeds will die!
Good luck with it all, whichever route you decide to take

I'd definitely go for 8' x 4' beds, but with grass paths. You can start immediately, and just work through the winter, one bed at a time!

We finished up with around thirty similar beds like that, and they were easy to control too - mind you it took some time, but you'll get there!

Thanks for all the comments so far! Great to see this is such an active community 

I've managed to source a brush cutter today from someone at work which is going to make my life so much easier!

We took a tape measure when we went and have started with a very rough outline of what we want to have on the plot eventually, including the small greenhouse and at some point a poly-tunnel. I'm absolutely mad for growing Aji/Chilli peppers and making hot sauce, so I'll have as much space on the plot under plastic or glass as my other half will let me!  At the moment all i have is a makeshift greenhouse made out of pallets and plastic in our very paved garden (picture attached because I'm proud), so having a whole plot is like a dream come true.

Interesting to know people are suggesting spraying off deep-rooted weeds. Do people use Glyphosate on allotments generally? I imagined that if anyone saw me with glyphosate I'd get shouted at. I'd like to avoid using it if possible but I know that sometimes it can be necessary.

Raised beds are a great idea, I've always thought they looked really attractive but haven't quite been won round to how practical they are considering the effort that goes in to building/filling them. I don't really know what the soil at the plot is like yet, so it might be that they are necessary.. I imagine we might have a couple of smaller raised beds at some point.

Potterer - thanks for raising Charles Dowding! I was going to talk about no dig in my initial post but I thought I was already rambling on long enough. I've watched a score of his videos and a lot of other advocates of no dig as well, "UK here we grow" have a great channel and they've moved to a more no-dig approach now too. I'm really really interested in the concept but I simply don't think I'll be able to source enough manure or compost right from the start to get the whole plot covered. I always had it in the back of my mind that I'd like to try to have some dug beds and some no-dig to compare the two.
 I think I'll strim off the grassy areas, cover those with membrane and let the grass die off over winter, and consider having those parts as my no-dig areas. I feel like I'm going to have to dig the bramble and weed roots out in the really over-grown patches so I might as well try and create the dug beds in that section!
 Priority #3 was written kind of with no-dig in mind, I'd like to get as much horse manure as possible so I could start no dig experiments as soon as possible!

Tony B - I didn't even consider the idea that there might be a load of fabric or membrane already laid out!! I'll hopefully be able to figure out where the old paths were and consider these when designing how we'll have our plot. Great point!

Thankyou again for all the comments! It's so encouraging. I've booked the rest of the week off work, we're dismantling and moving the greenhouse tomorrow, and hopefully beginning clearance and digging on Thursday!

First day on the allotment went really well! Managed to get everything cut back in a few hours and to a level where we can actually start making some nice scale based plans!

Like tony suggested, found lots and lots of hidden things in the undergrowth, matting, metal gutters, bits of wheelbarrows, watering cans, small gardening tools. Great stuff. Managed to get into one of the sheds which looked really sturdy from outside. We had to use bolt cutters to go through the latch which was padlocked, at which point the MDF door promptly split in two lengthways and fell on me hahaha!
Shed looked pretty sturdy but has been letting water in for a long time - bits of it are extremely rotten. We'll see if it's salvageable! lots of useful bits in the shed which is always nice.

Got chatting to a few guys and one said the plot was completely overgrown for over 4 years. Makes a lot of sense.

So excited to carry on transforming this. is there a thread where people post progress pictures of new allotments? Would be nice to keep this kind of updated and chronicle the change!

Hello and welcome.

Mine looked rather like yours at the beginning and having had 18 months on it now, if I were to do it again I'd do it completely different. We tried to dig the lot over after strimming the tops but by the time we'd started sowing and planting, the weeds sprang back and we ended up doing it again. And again etc.

Your approach to tackle it in stages sounds sensible, and covering up with plastic or cardboard until you plant/sow stuff would be a good move.

Some on here go for the 'no-dig' concept and I'm going to try it next year as the weeds on our plot are ridiculous, though I wont be doing the raised beds, just heavy mulching and thick cardboard.

Good luck, hope you have fun.

The council has to do inspections to notice which plots aren't being worked, before  they can offer it to someone from the waiting list. With most, without an effective Committee, as long as someone is paying for a plot, they aren't that bothered whether it is worked or not.

You can often get a plot by going onto sites and finding the ones that aren't being cultivated and ask the Council/committee if you can take one of those on (assuming you are prepared to do the work)…
Our Council has become more proactive over the last couple of years and now checks the plots each month of the growing season, so they get relet directly the tenant stop cultivating (council repossession) or hand back their key.