The latest news and updates from AGT.
Primary School Grants in 2018 This year, Avon Gardens Trust has been delighted to award four grants totalling £700 to schools in our area – two in South Gloucestershire, one in Bristol and one in Bath and North East Somerset. Although we usually encourage grant applications from primary schools only, this year we made an exception as we were so impressed by the achievements of a secondary school in our area.
TORTWORTH FOREST CENTRE – AN UPDATE Grey clouds for their April Open Day did not deter families, especially those with young children, from coming out to enjoy the space. Space with activities, forest trails, the goats to talk to and a big cook pot with a delicious stew cooking on the camp fire. Rebecca Cork and her helpers had put together a fun day. Dating from the 1890s Tortworth it is an important heritage site. …
Blaise Community Garden Avon Gardens Trust has made an award of £1,200 to help with the restoration of a Victorian greenhouse in Blaise Community Garden. This walled garden was originally the garden for Blaise House but since then had been used by several organisations including Bristol City Council to grow bedding plants and Cannington College teach students about horticulture. For ten years, the garden was in disuse but in 2013, the Friends of Blaise and …
The Drinking Fountain in Page Park The Trust has recently made an award of £1,000 towards the restoration of this Edwardian drinking fountain. Situated in the Staple Hill area of Bristol, nineteen acres of land for a public park was donated in 1910 by Arthur William Page, a local solicitor. In the last few years, with help from South Gloucestershire Council, the Big Lottery Fund, and the Heritage Lottery Fund, the Friends of Page Park …
This year, Avon Gardens Trust made a donation to Culverhill School, a special school in Yate that caters for 135 pupils with ages ranging from 7 to 16 years. As the pupils at the school have complex learning difficulties, tasks are broken down into small steps with lots of visual and tactile clues. As part of this learning process, the school wanted to build raised accessible beds so pupils could take part in the growing …
A vital part of AGT’s vision is to encourage future generations to enjoy and participate in gardening. What better opportunity than to support school gardening projects. “This project has helped me understand plants and the conditions they grow in.” Avon Gardens Trust will be making an award of £250 to Downend School in South Gloucestershire to help pupils purchase materials and plants for a garden they have designed themselves. The school, a co-educational secondary school …
In January 2015 Dry Arch Growers in Bathampton planted fifty apple trees and we were delighted to have donated many of them. Move on to September 2017 and their first fruits are ripening. The reward for all their careful nurturing. It was in 2011 Dry Arch Growers set up their weekly vegetable box scheme. Six years later in March this year the cooperative took the decision to change their operating mode. They began the process …
Claire Loder had a dream; she dreamt the front gardens on the Whiteway estate in Bath were full of plants, flowers, shrubs, fruit and humming with insects which had attracted more birds. So Claire did something about it and together with like-minded friends and neighbours, she set about publicising and organising a Festival of Front Gardens for the summer of 2017. They wanted to celebrate Whiteway’s front gardens and public facing spaces, bring Bath to …
Avon Gardens Trust were delighted to make two awards to primary schools in our area. One was a village school in North Somerset while the second was a city school in Bristol. Both schools are very keen to encourage and involve their pupils in learning about and understanding their outdoor environment. Schools Awarded Grants in 2016 Ashton Gate Primary School, Ashton Gate Rd, Bristol St Andrew’s C of E Primary School, Station Road, Congresbury, North …
I first visited the Easton Community Garden in September and discovered a very well laid out productive space next to a small Trading Estate near Greenbank Cemetery. I was shown round by Cristina Crossingham who had been an early member of the community enterprise. In 2001 the land had become a neglected allotment site. The first volunteers to see the potential of the site were a Bristol Permaculture Group who undertook negotiations with Bristol City …