Villagers in Colwall are celebrating the creation of Colwall Village Garden – our community orchard and village allotments. We finally bought the land in May and our intrepid volunteers worked hard all that month to install fencing and water piping so that we could get the allotment ready by early June. We have succeeded in this and now have all 58 plots let to 60 families in the village, so we have had to start a waiting list! It is lovely to see the site develop as the plot holders, of all ages, start to plant out their allotments and also good to see new friendships forged within the community.
It has been a long journey! We first dreamt of having our own community orchard back in 2008. We tried to buy or rent several orchards in the village without success and concluded that we needed to buy land and create a new orchard of our own. At the same time, Colwall Allotment Association reached a similar conclusion following unsuccessful efforts to rent land for allotments. So, we joined forces and since then have been doing our best to establish Colwall Village Garden.
We failed to get our hoped for funding from the Big Lottery or from the Parish Council, but undaunted, we have raised the cash for the land through loans and donations from local supporters. Other organisations are supporting us with various aspects of the project, so we are progressing step by step. DFLegal have very kindly provided all relevant legal services free of charge. We received a grant from the Herefordshire Council Community Projects to fence the orchard, allotments and play area, install the water distribution system in the allotments and lay out the paths and plots. We have lots of orchard trees ready to plant out this autumn and a gift from the Malvern Lions for a tractor for the children’s play area. The Malvern Hills AONB are generously funding our community apiary and covering some costs of rainwater harvesting and electricity connection. Now we need money urgently for the balance of the funding for the water and electricity connections and money to restore the old apple packing shed, install solar panels and plant out the orchard trees.
Our local volunteers have been brilliant throughout the long wait and have turned out to help at regular work parties. We have cleaned out the old apple packing shed which will be the focus of communal activity on the site. We have dismantled and recycled old fencing, shovelled sheep muck and generally tidied up and most recently we have dug and filled in trenches for the water pipes.
Many thanks go to all of our volunteers and supporters for having faith in our project and helping us to keep going with our plans! But there is still a lot to do. We need cash for many of these projects (and to pay off our loans) and lots more practical help to get Colwall Village Garden up and running. If you think you may be able to help in any way, please contact Helen or Tim on 540569 or use our "contact us" form, and do please come and look around to see what we are up to. Thank you.
Note: this is adapted from a forthcoming article in West of the Hills – which will be available online in full colour with photos at www.allabout-local.com
Meanwhile.....
See members pages for details of tasks, social and other events.
Check here to see progress on our Village Garden.
updated 17th June 2011