Case Studies

104 (total) (70 – Clay Lane, 34 – Wharfland)

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Water on tap, WC, communal meeting sheds

Christmas do, Summer solstice celebration, Bonfire night

The Canal – the site exists as two parts either side of the Grand Union Canal. Also, the many trees that border both Clay Lane and Wharfland sites. These features in turn support a great deal of wildlife around and on the site. From herons and frogs to owls and bats.

We understand that the land forming the Wharfland site was bequeathed to use of ‘gentleman gardeners’ by a local benefactor from Acocks Green.

English, Irish, Polish, Indian, Serbian, Bangladeshi and Greek.

Several bee keepers. Many sheds custom-built by tenants. Also there is a cider orchard.

That the Clay Lane site was used as a camping area by the navvies who dug the Grand Union Canal. This is often used as the explanation for the great many clay-pipe fragments unearthed by tenants digging their plots. It may also be why the land at Clay Lane is so fertile!

The site has been used for allotments for well over 100 years.

Stores, composting toilet, pavilion, communal manure and wood shredding available.

Annual Open Day, community celebration of harvest and an Apple Day.

Incredible Surplus food share and gardening. Moor Green Junior Academy have use of a plot.

The site is on the valley side of the River Rea, and has a semi-rural aspect with trees surrounding the margins and generally good light.

It is believed that the area bounded by Dads Lane, Shutlock Lane and Moor Green Lane was a Saxon two field agricultural system, and that it contained a Moote, i.e. a meeting place. It seems fitting that today we have our Pavilion, which serves a similar purpose! In the nineteenth century the site was used as an orchard, and many of the original varieties of apple, pear and plum trees remain to this day.

A broad spectrum of people of European, African-Caribbean and Asian descent or origin.

There have been a few plant specialists at Dads Lane over the years, including two cactus growers, a dahlia grower / shower, and a few chrysanthemum enthusiasts. Some people favour permaculture, and others love the mix of flowers and edible produce.

There are several interesting sheds and shelters, made to individual designs and often using reclaimed materials. Plotholders have a variety of methods of layout and structure, and some include wildlife ponds.

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70

Communal bothy and garden, communal orchard, toilet, water taps around the site

Plant swap, annual fruit and vegetable show + open afternoon, working parties

Edgbaston High School gardening club, Carer's group

There are hedges surrounding each plot which are predominantly hawthorn. They form part of our listing on the Register of Historic Parks and Gardens. Please note that the listing is under the name Westbourne Rd Leisure Gardens.

British, British Iraqi, British Pakistani, British Indian, British Kenyan, British Chinese, Irish.

The two friends who have plot 99 are both artists and as well as taking interesting photos they have used their artistic skills to create some interesting structures using branches of trees that have been coppiced.

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Community Hub / Site Office / kitchen (container). Site Shop. Toilet Block.

Monthly Coffee morning, third Sunday each month. Various others that include Easter Egg Hunts, Halloween Pumpkin Parade - competitions for biggest & best carved pumpkins. Christmas Tombola. Summer BBQ. Plant Sales. Ongoing commitment to Noah's Star & Breast Friends Solihull charities (one of our plot holders knits toys & we sell them on site at our events & split the proceeds between the 2 charities). In 2022 we had Barbara from the BDAC open our Jubilee orchard (& plant a tree for the jubilee). This year we are planning sunflower circles & a wellness garden with an area in memory of Derek.

Crossing Points Church group.

2 steams run across the site, one is a canal feeder, they like to overflow in heavy rain!

England, Ireland, Wales, Pakistan, West Indies, Romanian, Polish, Philippines.

We had a plot we nicknamed the Plot from Hell but as soon as Chris & his Family took it on we called it the plot with potential!! They have made an amazing job of the plot in the 2 plus years they have been on site, the transformation is incredible as are the veggies they grow.

The Jubilee Orchard signs were all painted by Nicola Brookes, as are many other signs on her plot. This year's creativity will come from transforming the waste bit of grass opposite the Jubilee orchard into a wellness garden & sunflower circle with Derek's Den / Dell incorporated in it.

The site is Birmingham City Council but the address & land are in Solihull. The site was much larger but in the 70’s. I think part of the land was sold to build Dorsington Road Houses & flats on it. Some was given to Kineton Green school to have as grassed areas & a playground.

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Toilets, water.

Rich in fruit trees, very rural

Overflow for Longmeadow crescent

English, Caribbean

4 years ago it was empty, abandoned and overgrown.

During the war on the German flight path to fort Dunlop, an unexploded bomb was dropped on site.

It is now 40% let with a strong committee; still a work in progress.

Originally ninety over 2.4 hectares. Now approaching one hundred and thirty as plots are halved and even quartered to meet current demand.

Twenty-two over 2.4 hectares.

Concrete (Marley) Community Room and former shop now workshop. Shop was discontinued at start of lockdown due to retirement of members who ran it and inability to compete with local garden centre and Wilko. We have a delightful portaloo. No electricity on site and a temperamental water system that stretches over the whole site. This consists of about twenty old cast iron baths fed by plastic pipes each with a ball cock valve to refill. Last year we installed a “Sharing Shack” for members to share surplus produce, plants and seedlings and gardening equipment.

We run a spring and autumn open day and the occasional charity event - we raised £1500 for Ukrainian Humanitarian relief in 2022. This year we will be working with our local bookshop to run some summer literary events. We are hoping to reestablish our monthly members coffee mornings in the spring and summer after the Covid hiatus.

Our gardens are on a west facing slope running down from Rowheath to the Woodlands Brook and Parkway in the heart of Bourneville. The valley is very wooded, in the spring we cannot see the adjacent houses and it feels like being in a forest. From our top gate we have views to the City Centre some six miles away and to Warley Woods some four miles distant. We have a wetland area at the bottom of the site. The soil is a firm but friable clay-based soil which reacts well to continued and heavy mulching. The clay becomes more solid at about 500mm from the surface so double digging is not advised!! The soil is also quite pebbly with beach deposits from the Triassic era.

Hay Green Allotments are the largest allotment site belonging to Bournville Village Trust and has virtually no connection with Birmingham City Council. They are held by the Association on a ten-year lease which expires in September 2023. The Trust and the Association work in close in partnership, particularly collaborating on the Trusts environmental strategy and members of our committee sit on Trust committees. We are currently negotiating a new lease and service level agreement up to 2043. Members of the Cadbury family are regular visitors. The allocation of the land for allotments was made by George Cadbury, the founder of the Trust in the early part of the last century after an approach from workers at the chocolate factory. George had not seen the need for allotments as each house in the village was given a garden which occupied two thirds of its site as well as a cleared vegetable patch, two fruit bushes and a fruit tree. He allocated three large pieces of land at Rowheath and Hay Green for allotments which remained part of the factory. In the late 1970s demand for the plots had dropped and the two pieces of land at Hay Green were reallocated to build houses and a school and the largest area at Row Heath was retained and ownership moved from the factory to the Trust. Ironically we are still called Hay Green Allotments even though we are part of Row Heath!!

We are a “Gardening Community” and welcome members from all backgrounds. We have members whose families originated in Scotland Syria, Kurdistan, Wales, Zimbabwe, Ukraine, Sierra Leone, Russia, Ireland and Egypt amongst others. Around 40% of our members are women and we have a large number LGBT+ members.

All workers under the age of twenty at Cadbury Bros Ltd had to undertake a day a week of education at the Day Continuation School on Bournville Village Green; this included a cross country run with the circuit going through the allotments. One of our older members recollects with some affection an elderly woman calling the young people into a large shed where she had tea ready for them. How Times have Changed for the Better!! One of our women members recollects that when she first applied for a plot in the mid-eighties, she had to go for an interview with three elderly pipe smoking male committee members in the shed. The questions included: “Well my dear (puff on pipe) how are you going to cope without a man?!!!” And “What will happen when you get married and have a baby?” She told them the error of their ways and she was allocated a plot which she has to this day!

We are planning a number of literary events in 2023 with our local independent book shop.

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Toilets, water.

Macmillan Coffee Mornings, Open Days

Prince’s Trust, Payback to the community, Local Resident Group

Boundary Hedgerow for Birmingham - Solihull

Created Post war to accommodate the Shard End Estate

English, Irish, Kenyan, Polish, Czech, Slovanic, Caribbean

5 years ago it was empty and overgrown; it is now fully let out with a strong committee.

Ghost of dead plot holder.

From abandoned and about to be sold off, it is now thriving, won best managed site 2019, commendation from the Lord Mayor.

70 full size plots (includes 12 split into 24 half size plots).

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Metal container office/ meeting place, shed for a community shop, shed for equipment storage. Toilets including disabled toilets. 20ft storage container. CCTV.

Spring Fayre, Summer Show and Mega Biggest Pumpkin and Marrow Competition.

Datus, Bell Hill Primary school.

Remains of an ancient hedgerow, community orchard in memory of Flo Pickering.

The site used to be part of Lower Tinkers Farm so you can still see old Oak trees that once denoted the field boundaries and also the remains of a hedgerow.

Mainly White English, but also Eastern European, African, Korean, Indian.

A good few years ago the site came under threat due to low occupancy levels. Our President Josie Coey and a plot holder, Councilor Florence Pickering were quickly on the case and successfully persuaded the Council not to close the site. Some of it however, was taken for housing. Some of the money from the sale of the Allotment land was given to the site. Josie Coey was able to make decisions on what it should be spent on, so the site got new fencing, re tarmacked roads and a brand-new site office. The original site hut being burn down by vandals. Since then, in the last twenty-years occupancy has increased and this has led to a stronger committee and we were able to fulfill Josie’s dream of holding a Lower Tinkers Allotment Show in 2004. Josie is a trained BDAC Show judge.

Flower tubs and welcoming flower beds. A Scarecrow competition in October.

We value community spirit. Every Sunday we open our Association shop to provide convenient access, composts, fertilizers, and timber etc. Also, the Office is open and plot holders are encouraged to stay a while and meet up over a cup of tea or coffee provided by Dave. We support a local Food bank by donating surplus fruit and veg during the growing season. We enter the Birmingham and District Allotment Site competitions & one of our plot holders Alan Weale has been successful in getting into the top five ranked plots in Birmingham. Some of our newcomers have equally done well in the newcomer plot category.

240

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Clubhouse, Seedstore, onsite toilets, teaching plot

Regular use of clubhouse by plotholders and social members from the local communities for weddings, parties and other functions. Winter and Spring Fairs open to the community as well as the annual Produce Show.

EcoGrow Forest School - “EcoGrow CIC is about community growing, forest school and environmental conservation. They work alongside communities to offer safe outdoor spaces for children to be, learn and play.”

A field in a wood. Surrounded by trees.

The site reflects the Birmingham story in terms of minority ethnic presence. Sizeable groups of plotholders of Irish, Caribbean, Pakistani and Bangladeshi heritage together with more recent Kurdish, Syrian and Afghan tenants. And a sprinkling of Norwegian, German, American and Polish individuals. Dedicated plot for refugees, currently largely used by Ukrainian families.

We are the location for the popular BBC Two drama “My name is Leon” a story about a mixed-race boy in the 1970s getting support and security from a local allotment holder.

We have a well-maintained teaching plot which shows new tenants and children from local schools the potential of allotmenteering. We have quirky plots starring toilet bowls and pirate ship raised beds . We have regular events like a Halloween Children's Party at the Clubhouse.

22

4

Water, toilets.

Open Day

Next to St Giles Church Forge and Moat; close to village centre of Sheldon, two 400 year old oaks.

At the centre of the old village, oaks would have significance as moot meeting places.

English, Irish

Pleasant rural type site, reeks of history.

Original part of old village unbuilt on!

Regenerated mainly though brilliant efforts of Andrew Hodson, who we sadly lost in April 2023. He acquired a £10,000 grant to create a learning centre for local schools. We are going ahead with his plan. Four years ago, this site was totally abandoned and overgrown. Now one of the best sites in Birmingham. Well done Andrew.

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On site male, female and disabled toilets. Canteen and on site shop both of which are open at weekends, and the shop opens to the public.

We hold lots of community events on site including a plant sale, summer show, MacMillan Coffee morning, Christmas fayre and when time/monies allow we hold free barbeques etc for plot holders. We also have a plot which is let to the Dahlia Society who their show on site attaching visitors from across the Midlands. We host a remembrance service each year for the local community on site in the remembrance garden.

We have the Probation Service working on site 2 days a week carrying out maintenance, repairs and general tidying up. We also host meetings for a local community groups such as the 3Bs planning group and during the Commonwealth Games, we hosted a bereavement charity, who had to move due to the Games Committee taking over their usual facilities. We have had other groups occasionally use our facilities such as a local choir and band.

We have a well-stocked and run shop on site, kitchen and canteen area. Well maintained and presented garden spaces including our garden for William which is recognised by the British Legion as a War Memorial. We have a specially built raised plot for differently abled plot holders.

Due to the overwhelming demand, we managed to obtain further land which was waste land and the City Council fenced it off and laid the pathways, but plot holders prepared the land for plots. It has provided a further 15 plots.

We currently have a mix of English, Irish, Jamaican, Southeast Asian and Polish.

When plot holders worked hard to create a raised plot for a plot holder who was in a wheelchair. This was done solely by plot holders, but it forced the City Council to lay a proper tarmac road, which had previously been a dirt track with grass growing in patches and larges patches that flooded, which would have made it impossible for a wheelchair user to access the plot.

A local forger, William Booth is alleged to haunt the brook which runs along the back of the site.

From a near derelict site in the early 90s to a thriving site which has a waiting list of 22, some of whom have been on there since 2020. We have a hard working team of volunteers on site who always show up when help is needed or when we have an open day and the community are thankful for all the hard work and the site is an important part of the local community. We have a lot of regular shop users and people who attend all of our events and they look forward to them and often chase us for the dates!

110

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Toilets (including 1 disabled), Kitchen, meeting room, Stores, 12 standpipes, car parks, roadways, free horse manure deliveries, WhatsApp groups, plant sales.

None for this year as we are busy making a memorial garden. Previous events have included Summer Fairs, Halloween Fair, Plant Sales.

Open Doors

Landscaped grounds

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We saved the site from closure by the Council in 2017 by running a campaign by Robert the allotment cat on Twitter.

A plot holder grows dye plants and makes and dyes clothes from the plants.

194 (varies depending on whether we subdivide full plots into half and miniplots)

No waiting list at any site, but Lime Tree Road and Fairholme Rd almost full

At main site Northleigh Road, we have a pavilion, tearoom/kitchen, toilets and Stores for selling gardening items in a container. Also 2 other containers; plus lockers and a shed in very bad condition. Electricity supply. On 3 of the other sites we have tearooms erected by plotholders in the past. The other has a communal shed where tools and equipment are kept. All have toilets.

Before the lockdowns, we had annual shows, sometimes 3 in a year, with competitions for vegetables, flowers and fruit. Normally the public was able to attend these. In 2019 we held a Family Fun day attended by around 500 people, with stalls, activities, food etc. In 2021 we had a competition but it was only attended by plotholders and families. In 2022, we organised another, but it was cancelled because the Queen had just died. We have Christmas parties open to plotholders and their friends and families, in December, on the main site.

St Margarets Road: Unity Hubb (community centre based at St Margarets Road, open to all faiths and no faith) – has 3 plots at St Margarets Road (2 for gardening, 1 for activities); Thornton Rd Primary School has 1 plot; New Shoots Gardening Club has 1 plot from 2019, and starting another from 2023. Blackpit Lane: Heart of Birmingham Vocational College catering for 16-25 year olds with disabilities has taken on a plot for gardening activities with their students. Northleigh Road: HS2 has taken on a plot in 2023. The main depot for the HS2 line will be in Drews lane, 5 minutes walk from this site, and when the line is completed, there’ll be 500 staff employed there so the plot will be their lunchtime and after work therapy.

Northleigh Road is on the site of a lake; there were airraid shelters at Blackpit Lane.

English, Caribbean or Caribbean heritage (Jamaican, Trinidadian), Pakistani (or Pakistani heritage), Bangladeshi (Bengali heritage), Afghanistani, Syrian, Iranian, Iraqi, Egyptian, Libyan heritage, Zimbabwean, Nigerian, Cameroonian, Somali, Lithuanian.

We used to have 9 sites round the area, but 4 sold off for development. Last one to go was part of Lime Tree Road site (which used to be 2 sites), and the plotholders agreed to losing land because it was going to be for ‘nature’. In fact it was used to building housing. Another site lost a bit of land when the garage next door pinched some of its land to extend theirs and built a wall. Despite protests from the plotholders to the authorities, they got away with this some years ago.

There used to be a fair number of competitive gardeners who would vie for being the best at different sorts of vegetables, fruit and flowers especially dahlias, chrysanthemums and sweet peas. Also each year WEGA would go to the Malvern Annual Show with their exhibits and enter the BDAC annual competitions, as well as organising 2 or 3 shows a year for association members to enter their best efforts. This generation has nearly all gone now, and most current plotholders are just bothered about growing crops to eat. In the last 5 years we have hosted visits from primary schools so children can learn about growing food, nature etc.

In 2022, WEGA turned into a Co-operative sponsored by the National Allotment Society.