Your story

Bringing the community together to grow, to share, to learn

Group introduction

We are an enthusiastic and friendly allotment association for the parish of Blofield and Blofield Heath, neighbouring villages 5 miles from Norwich. Our association was formed 5 years ago and after a couple of years’ hard work in identifying suitable land, we obtained our first site and we started work in early 2013. More land was obtained in 2014 and we now have 50 plots, including some half plots, starter plots and a community half-plot. We are very proud of the progress we’ve made in such a short time and the site is flourishing with a huge variety of vegetables, fruit bushes and trees, flowers and chickens – as well as wildlife. Our members are a great mix of ages and backgrounds and range from complete beginners to experienced gardeners. Our plots really reflect this diversity and the individuality of every plot-holder! And unlike other community facilities, it’s always available for however long we want to spend there.

The Association is run by a committee of volunteers who had a key role in finding potential sites and liaising with the Parish Council to obtain it on our behalf, and the committee is now responsible for day-to-day management, allocations from the waiting list and organising events and work parties. While the Parish Council funded the materials to set up the site – fencing, car-park surface, and the water supply, all the labour and many additional materials have been supplied by members. From the beginning there has been a fantastic response every time a work party is needed to erect fencing, plant hedges, cut hedges, lay the car park– and we’ve found that these daunting tasks go really quickly with lots of people involved.

Membership is open to everyone living in the parish at an annual subscription of £5 to cover insurance and membership of the National Allotment Association. We hold social events with a barbecue a few times a year, always well supported by friends and families. The site is opened to visitors as part of the annual village open gardens every year. The community plot is cultivated by the local scouts group. The goal of the allotments is to bring the community together to strengthen social ties and share what we discover about the benefits of growing, preparing and eating our own food.

Our village is seeing an unprecedented number of planning consents for new housing and is set to grow rapidly over the next 5 years with a potential population increase of 40%. We want to make sure our allotments provide a genuine welcome to everyone in our growing community.

How would this funding have an impact on your community?

We want to build a large sturdy open shelter which will include two closed compartments, one to store communal tools and the other eventually to house a composting toilet. The shed will be constructed of timber with a pent roof to collect rainfall to be stored in a large tank. The building will be used for both planned and informal gatherings.

The allotment holders have always been aware of the committee’s plan to provide a place to store tools and to shelter from the weather. Over the last three years, barbecues and other social events have seen the committee raise £1000 towards our goal of £1800.

If we’re lucky enough to be awarded the grant it would expedite the building of the shelter by approximately 18 months. Our ever-willing members have committed to providing the labour enabling the committee to allocate the funds to good quality materials and build a structure that is aesthetically pleasing, long lasting and functional.

The communal tool store will hold the association’s lawn mower used for cutting the main paths and other tools for communal use; many of our plot holders cannot afford a shed or do not want to waste valuable space with a shed of their own. At social events there will be plenty of room for tables with food, and for the scouts who cultivate the community plot it will be a place to plan the session or to take a break in bad weather.

Providing a facility where our members can share surplus seeds and seedlings will help reduce costs for our members. As a meeting place and a dry location for donating produce for a local food bank scheme and our noticeboard, the shelter will become a hub for sharing skills, ideas and recipes with the community. In this way the grant will benefit not only our existing members and their friends and families but many in the wider community in the future.

In summary we foresee the shelter as a facilitator of social interaction, security for the storage of tools, and a safe dry location where the community can meet for social gatherings regardless of what Mother Nature is throwing at us!

""I have lived in the village for 15 years and I've met more people from the village in the last 5 years than I ever met in the previous 10!" (Jim Barrett-Smith, committee member)"

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