In June 2014, Stuart Etheridge – Belgrave Community Development Officer, was tasked to create a community resource for the residents of Tamworth on a plot of vacant land nestled between the Tamworth Community Fire and Police Station and the St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School. This community project was initially handed over to the senior citizens of Belgrave to create a local communal allotment and garden for all to enjoy.
By March 2015, rough plans were in place and a small of senior volunteers started digging beds to plant root vegetables and a small orchard. This was the beginnings of the Belgrave Community Allotment and Garden (BCA&G). Since its creation, this unique project continued with the ethos of bringing local communities together, to learn new skills in horticulture and gardening with the main objectives to ‘Sow, Grow and Share’. The organic food harvested has also been fundamental to improving these community connections and the volunteers’ mental health and physical wellbeing.
Belgrave Community Allotment and Garden has a proud history of building connections and support networks with local corporates, companies and social prescribers. From our early days, we formed strong partnerships with our nearest neighbours – St Gabriel Primary School and the Community Fire Station, and furthermore, links were established with Tamworth Enterprise College, Morrisons’ Community Champion, and Creative Choices CIC, all in the local Belgrave area.
In June 2015, we hosted a team from Lovell Homes’ Head Office Tamworth on a ‘Volunteers Day’, who kindly rolled up their sleeves to help create six large growing beds, and a circular bed for common culinary herbs. Thereafter, young people from Tamworth Princes’ Trust Team 340 participated in a number of community activities to raise funds to build a further three raised beds to improve accessibility and inclusion at the allotment. These newly prepared beds were then planted with vegetables such as courgettes, butternut squash and tomatoes by St Gabriel’s Catholic Primary School and Two Rivers High School.
Over the next five years, the allotment and garden gradually evolved and with the support of Tamworth Borough Council we installed a new potting/tool shed and a large greenhouse, and the membership continued to grow under the Chairmanship of Laurie Winfield. However, during the season of 2018-2019, the membership of volunteers sadly began to reduce due to the age profile of the volunteers. This was further compounded by the Lockdown restrictions during the Global Pandemic. Although very challenging and unsustainable, in November 2020, the BCA&G received a COVID-19 grant for PPE from Support Staffordshire which enabled Etheline Deer, the only remaining member, to reboot the allotment and garden and also to develop a more diverse and inter-generational membership.
In 2021, with a Restart Grant from the Support Staffordshire Community Fund, Tamworth Borough Council and other funding bodies, helped facilitated our marketing and publicity activities, and covered the general running costs of the allotment. As a result of this, the membership numbers increased and attracted a wide range of people from all walks of life.
Over the next four years and with a lot of hard work and dedication from the active volunteers, the BCA&G has become an eco-friendly, self-sufficient allotment and garden.
We have:
This community project that began in 2015 has now developed into an award-winning allotment and garden, with community, sustainability, health and wellbeing at the heart of all we do.
In 2023, the Belgrave Community Allotment & Gardens was recognised by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS) – Heart of England in Bloom/It’s your Neighbourhood, and received a Level 5 Outstanding Award, was featured on Ep.27 of BBC2 Gardeners’ World and was one of six included in the Global Gardens Exhibition at Eden Project Cornwall.