Our field is on television!

[Jea]

Our allotment field at Castle Hill Ipswich is the 'Anglia Allotment' on Anglia TV this summer. They are doing short - about five minute - slots - mostly live - at intervals through the summer months in the early Evening News programme and then a day or so later it will be on their website (plus some 'extra' filming done during their visit). First programme was 13 April - next is 30 April (its about recycling), then 28 May, 21 June, 26 July, 9 and 27 Aug, 3 Sept.
Our field was also the winner of the Kitchen Garden/NSALG 'best community allotment project' in 2006 - and we've continued - and expanded - our community involvement, especially with schools; we had 65 reception year children (plus teachers and helpers) visit us earlier this week.

[oldherbaceous]

Fame at last Jea, i'll be watching it to see if i can see you.

[Victoria]

Nice looking allotments on TV yesterday evening, loved the bird scarers! Are those the allotments on the London Road?

[Nature's Babe]

Congratulations, sounds like it's a great success ! so cool involving the children, catch 'em young and get them interested.

[Jea]

Hi Victoria - no, our allotment field is 'Castle Hill Allotments' and is off 'Ashcroft Lane' between Dales Road and Ashcroft Road and next to the railway line - we can't be seen from the road as there are locked gates then its up a driveway which turns the corner, and there's the allotments! There's a gate the other end - Larchcroft Road - but you can't see much from outside the gate here either.
We have an open day on 3 July 2-4pm, in the past our open days have been to raise money for local charities (including the Thomas Wolsey School - for pupils with special and additional needs - and they are regular visitors) so there have been 'stalls' but this year its just 'light refreshments' and an opportunity for people to have a look round at our plots and our community and wildlife area.

[alan refail]

Hi Jea

Nice view on Google from the air

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&source= ... 5&t=h&z=17

[glallotments]

It looks to be a huge site!

[Jea]

We are a 'long thin' site with a trackway up the centre and plots off each side with our community buildings in the centre of the field - our community buildings include a 20ft x 20ft community building (new earlier this year) which we use for visiting schools groups - and last week we hosted a visit by Japanese allotmenteers and had a sit down meal in here for 18 people, using produce from our allotments wherever possible.
We have about 150 plots now - because for the past three years or so any 'ten rod plots' have been split into two - thus the number of plots has increased. We've done this to try to keep our waiting list down (but its still twenty plus) but it has the added advantage that with a five rod plot people find it easier to manage, thus they make a success of it whereas sometimes with a ten rod plot it wasn't so easy to manage, and people found these too much. If people with a five rod plot want an additional one they can go on the list again and we try to find them one in the same area of the field, if we can
The next programme from our field is on Friday 28 May and part of the theme will be 'if you haven't got a garden you can still grow things to eat' and will feature 'sowing salad leaves' these are brilliant as you can sow in a seed tray at regular intervals and keep on cutting fresh salads.

[oldherbaceous]

Dear Jea, thank you for the informative update, very interesting to know what's going on elsewhere.

[Jea]

We were on Anglia TV again this last Monday - the theme was getting 'schools' involved; you can see the programme on the Anglia TV website. Also in the 'Anglia Allotment Extra' our field secretary, Eric, shows how we made our lobelia footballs.