News from Avon Gardens Trust

The latest news and updates from AGT.

Hartcliffe Health and Environmental Action Group – Autumn 2014

We gave a ‘helping hand’ to the Hartcliffe Health and Environmental Action Group (HHEAG) by providing a new cover for one of their poly tunnels. On the appointed sunny morning I turned up at the allotment site as a volunteer to meet a dozen people, all connected with running HHEAG. Led by Sue Walker together with the leader of their allotment gardening and under the instruction of an expert, we were soon issued with spades …

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Hartcliffe Health and Environmental Action Group – Summer 2014

We are delighted to give support to community groups in the form of a modest grant. Hartcliffe Health & Environment Action Group is a charity based at the Gatehouse Centre in the Dundry View area of South Bristol. Established for 24 years, the group works to improve the health, wellbeing and environment of local people. They aim to achieve this by providing a range of services and activities for residents. All projects are led by …

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Dry Arch Growers

We are delighted to give support to community groups in the form of a modest grant. Dry Arch Growers are a Bathampton Community Co-operative registered as an Industrial Provident Society. They comprise a group of people from Bathampton and surrounding areas whose aim is to manage back to useful life a six acre site which was, until twenty years ago, a market garden, for the benefit of the local community. Situated in an area of …

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Primary School Grants in 2013-2014 Academic Year

Cynthia with children and their crop of potatoes at Freshford Primary School

As a new member of the committee, I have taken on the responsibility of Education. A retired primary teacher, I taught in various Bristol primaries but mainly Victoria Park, Bedminster; Gay Elms, Withywood and finally All Hallows Preparatory, Cranmore. This year, I have loved visiting three of the primaries that had benefited from our grants, and I feel very enthusiastic about facilitating and supporting gardening in schools. Especially impressive was Paulton Primary School, where a …

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Bristol Walled Garden Project Update

The Walled Garden Project at the old St Luke’s Vicarage in Barton Hill, Bristol is a community garden. In 2013 they applied to the Avon Gardens Trust for funding to create a Herb Garden within the space. Local residents come together to cultivate the garden with vegetables and fruit. Open days with community activities and delicious food are popular. Impressed by the dedication and enthusiasm shown by the leaders, the Avon Gardens Trust were please …

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South West Education Conference 2014

Working in Partnership – Engaging with Schools This well attended meeting was held in February at Bicton EaRTH Centre, East Budleigh, Devon, and the theme ‘working in partnership – engaging with schools’ was chosen to illustrate the collaborative way in which the Devon Gardens Trust is now approaching education. It was opened by Gilly Drummond, Association President, who described how the county garden trusts education committees’ hard work over the last thirty years had now …

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Primary School Grants in 2012-2013 Academic Year

In this last academic year, we received applications for a small grant towards gardens from eight schools within Avon. Two of the schools were from Bath and North East Somerset and six were from North Somerset. All these schools received a grant of £25 per school. Following the Annual General Meeting in July, it was proposed, seconded and agreed by the members present that the amount given to each successful school in the future would …

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A Peace Garden in Barton Hill, Bristol – Bringing communities together

Representatives from the Somali Resource Centre receiving a cheque as a contribution for fruit trees in the Peace Garden in front of the community mosque in Barton Hill

Belying the summer to come, on a cold and grey June day a cheque was handed over to representatives from the Somali Resource Centre and the charity Agora (www.agora.uk.com) in front of the Peace Garden on the forecourt of the inclusive community Mosque in Barton Hill. Our visit to the Somali Resource Centre at the Barton Hill Settlement in November 2012 and subsequently meeting a representative from Agora had led on to their initial application …

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South West Education Conference 2013

This was held on a rare sunny spring day in the National Trust owned medieval surroundings of Trerice in Cornwall. Delegates representing six counties across the south west region attended. The keynote speaker was Sarah Chesters, Principal Education Officer at Rosemoor, the RHS garden in Devon. She described a series of activities that were available to her predominantly nursery and primary school visitors to the garden there including pond dipping, tree planting, a hands on …

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An Award Winning Community Walled Garden in Bristol

Tucked away behind the Georgian facade of the old St. Luke’s Vicarage on the corner of Queen Anne Road in Barton Hill lies a spacious, historic walled garden in the area of the ancient ecclesiastical parish of Temple or Holy Cross. Dearly loved and beautifully laid out in earlier times, it had become neglected. Rather than the property being put on the open market, Dr Chris Sunderland of Agora, a charitable organisation which works to …

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