Save Combe Down Allotments!
Save Combe Down Allotments!
The Issue
Background - updated 5th Nov 2024
Combe Down allotments is the last remaining privately owned allotment leased to BANES Council in Bath. It was founded in 1895 for the use of the quarry workers to grow food for their families and provide them with a worthwhile activity on Sundays. It is the only Council/Parish allotment site which remains undesignated and unprotected as a Local Green Space under the current Local Plan.
The current lease is due to expire in April 2024 and the Council have now been served an eviction notice by the land owner and in turn they have served notice to the current plot holders, asking them to leave their plots at the end of October 2025.
Members of the community have set up a campaign to Save Combe Down Allotments and created a Friends of Combe Down Allotments group. This group has gone on to raise awareness, create a petition and have the land designated as an Asset of Community Value.
Why are we fighting to save these allotments ?
For people like Annie, Sophie and Mrs Ball and her family.
Annie took on her first allotment here 45 years ago. Annie says,
"I feel so desperately sad about the thought of losing the allotments. I could grow veg in my own garden but they wouldn't grow as well there. Above all, I value the Combe Down allotment site for for the quality of its soil, for its open aspect and for the fact that it is largely a piece of the original geological structure of the area. The soil on my allotment has a 'body' to it quite different in colour and texture from the old local garden soils, which though deep and black strike me as exhausted and turn to dust in dry weather. Where did all the soot from all those old coal fires go, I wonder?"
"The quality and structure of the soil varies from plot to plot. In recent times a part of the site has been mined, turned over and six plots have been subsequently back filled, much to their detriment, but overall I'm always amazed by the quantity of wonderful crops that are produced on the land with not much more than a spade's depth of topsoil covering brash or solid stone that prior to 1895 was considered fit only for grazing sheep! Since 1895 the land has been in continuous cultivation as allotments, the last vestige of the old medieval form of strip farming. Following a fallow period when an area of the original allotments was set aside to grass, the produce from the allotments that were recently reinstated there was just outstanding for their first year in 2023, with exceptional crops of garlic, broad beans and sprouts."
Annie cares deeply about the wildlife that shares our site from bats, badgers, deer and foxes to grass snakes, lizards, newts, adders and numerous insects, butterflies and bees. She treads very lightly on our planet and can usually be spotted wheeling her barrow through the village....
...As the sun sets and the moon rises, the hooting of tawny owls tells Annie that it's time to pack up her wheelbarrow and go home.
Sophie "For the past 24 years I have had a plot at Combe Down Allotments, a 5 minute walk from my home. My allotment has given me great joy, provided an important mental and physical respite from a demanding career in teaching, and was vital in aiding my recovery from a serious illness 19 years ago.
Over the years my plot and my wonderful allotment neighbours have taught me ( and also my children when they were young) how to grow wonderful vegetables and beautiful pollinating plants, using sustainable organic methods. Veteran plot holders such as Annie, and Sweet Pea Tony ( and Andy who moved away ) have taught me so much over the years. More recent arrivals have further enriched the community, passed on tips, shared plants and become good friends. During the Covid-19 pandemic the allotments were a happy, healthy, safe place to be with others outdoors. Having an allotment massively benefitted my teaching as I used my knowledge acquired on the allotment to grow veg with young children at the school and it also impacted on an international Erasmus schools project I was involved in for many years.
I am recently retired and was looking forward to many more years of allotmenting. This news is devastating to me and the whole allotment community.
Mrs Ball "I was very saddened to hear of the proposed closure of the allotments. My husband and I rented one of the allotments from 1956. We would take our two children with us to the allotment and involve them in planting and harvesting. The excitement after harvesting would encourage them to help prepare, cook and eat what vegetables they had proudly helped in cultivating. In adult life one now has a large vegetable garden and supplies me and some of her elderly neighbours. The other daughter rented an allotment in Exeter, won prizes for best kept allotment and for her vegetables and was able to encourage new gardeners who often sought her advice. The grandchildren are not so keen but they do plant and harvest flowers in their own back gardens. So that is three generations who have benefited from this opportunity and resource of those allotments. Seeing the notices posted regarding the probable closure of Combe Down allotments made me so sad that perhaps future children would not have the opportunity and the pleasure of planting, growing and eating their own vegetables, carrying on the allotment growing tradition. I do so hope that the facility of these allotments can be maintained."
See Facebook for photos and comments.
https://www.facebook.com/CombeDownAllotments/
What do we want?
We urge the landowner to reconsider his decision and to renew the Council’s lease of the site for long term allotment use.
Should the landowner decline to renew the lease, we urge the Council to use all its powers and available resources to secure the long term future of the site for allotments managed by the Council or a community group.
We urge the Council to use all its powers to protect this historic allotment site from a change to another use.
Next steps
This petition will be collated with the paper based petition for submission to the Landowner and BANES Council at the beginning of February.
Update at 18th January - in addition to the online petition we have approx. 700 signatures on the paper based petition. Thank you so much for all the support.
Please read the comments people have made on the petition as it shows how much these allotments mean, not just to the plotholders but to the wider community.
Also please follow us on social media and like and share our posts.
Please note that any donation you make to this petition is greatly appreciated as it goes towards funding the advertising of the petition by Change.org but it does not go to the campaign - we will update here and on social media re campaign funding once organised.
Thankyou !
Aerial photo of Combe Down allotments courtesy of @tomburrowsmedia
6,101
The Issue
Background - updated 5th Nov 2024
Combe Down allotments is the last remaining privately owned allotment leased to BANES Council in Bath. It was founded in 1895 for the use of the quarry workers to grow food for their families and provide them with a worthwhile activity on Sundays. It is the only Council/Parish allotment site which remains undesignated and unprotected as a Local Green Space under the current Local Plan.
The current lease is due to expire in April 2024 and the Council have now been served an eviction notice by the land owner and in turn they have served notice to the current plot holders, asking them to leave their plots at the end of October 2025.
Members of the community have set up a campaign to Save Combe Down Allotments and created a Friends of Combe Down Allotments group. This group has gone on to raise awareness, create a petition and have the land designated as an Asset of Community Value.
Why are we fighting to save these allotments ?
For people like Annie, Sophie and Mrs Ball and her family.
Annie took on her first allotment here 45 years ago. Annie says,
"I feel so desperately sad about the thought of losing the allotments. I could grow veg in my own garden but they wouldn't grow as well there. Above all, I value the Combe Down allotment site for for the quality of its soil, for its open aspect and for the fact that it is largely a piece of the original geological structure of the area. The soil on my allotment has a 'body' to it quite different in colour and texture from the old local garden soils, which though deep and black strike me as exhausted and turn to dust in dry weather. Where did all the soot from all those old coal fires go, I wonder?"
"The quality and structure of the soil varies from plot to plot. In recent times a part of the site has been mined, turned over and six plots have been subsequently back filled, much to their detriment, but overall I'm always amazed by the quantity of wonderful crops that are produced on the land with not much more than a spade's depth of topsoil covering brash or solid stone that prior to 1895 was considered fit only for grazing sheep! Since 1895 the land has been in continuous cultivation as allotments, the last vestige of the old medieval form of strip farming. Following a fallow period when an area of the original allotments was set aside to grass, the produce from the allotments that were recently reinstated there was just outstanding for their first year in 2023, with exceptional crops of garlic, broad beans and sprouts."
Annie cares deeply about the wildlife that shares our site from bats, badgers, deer and foxes to grass snakes, lizards, newts, adders and numerous insects, butterflies and bees. She treads very lightly on our planet and can usually be spotted wheeling her barrow through the village....
...As the sun sets and the moon rises, the hooting of tawny owls tells Annie that it's time to pack up her wheelbarrow and go home.
Sophie "For the past 24 years I have had a plot at Combe Down Allotments, a 5 minute walk from my home. My allotment has given me great joy, provided an important mental and physical respite from a demanding career in teaching, and was vital in aiding my recovery from a serious illness 19 years ago.
Over the years my plot and my wonderful allotment neighbours have taught me ( and also my children when they were young) how to grow wonderful vegetables and beautiful pollinating plants, using sustainable organic methods. Veteran plot holders such as Annie, and Sweet Pea Tony ( and Andy who moved away ) have taught me so much over the years. More recent arrivals have further enriched the community, passed on tips, shared plants and become good friends. During the Covid-19 pandemic the allotments were a happy, healthy, safe place to be with others outdoors. Having an allotment massively benefitted my teaching as I used my knowledge acquired on the allotment to grow veg with young children at the school and it also impacted on an international Erasmus schools project I was involved in for many years.
I am recently retired and was looking forward to many more years of allotmenting. This news is devastating to me and the whole allotment community.
Mrs Ball "I was very saddened to hear of the proposed closure of the allotments. My husband and I rented one of the allotments from 1956. We would take our two children with us to the allotment and involve them in planting and harvesting. The excitement after harvesting would encourage them to help prepare, cook and eat what vegetables they had proudly helped in cultivating. In adult life one now has a large vegetable garden and supplies me and some of her elderly neighbours. The other daughter rented an allotment in Exeter, won prizes for best kept allotment and for her vegetables and was able to encourage new gardeners who often sought her advice. The grandchildren are not so keen but they do plant and harvest flowers in their own back gardens. So that is three generations who have benefited from this opportunity and resource of those allotments. Seeing the notices posted regarding the probable closure of Combe Down allotments made me so sad that perhaps future children would not have the opportunity and the pleasure of planting, growing and eating their own vegetables, carrying on the allotment growing tradition. I do so hope that the facility of these allotments can be maintained."
See Facebook for photos and comments.
https://www.facebook.com/CombeDownAllotments/
What do we want?
We urge the landowner to reconsider his decision and to renew the Council’s lease of the site for long term allotment use.
Should the landowner decline to renew the lease, we urge the Council to use all its powers and available resources to secure the long term future of the site for allotments managed by the Council or a community group.
We urge the Council to use all its powers to protect this historic allotment site from a change to another use.
Next steps
This petition will be collated with the paper based petition for submission to the Landowner and BANES Council at the beginning of February.
Update at 18th January - in addition to the online petition we have approx. 700 signatures on the paper based petition. Thank you so much for all the support.
Please read the comments people have made on the petition as it shows how much these allotments mean, not just to the plotholders but to the wider community.
Also please follow us on social media and like and share our posts.
Please note that any donation you make to this petition is greatly appreciated as it goes towards funding the advertising of the petition by Change.org but it does not go to the campaign - we will update here and on social media re campaign funding once organised.
Thankyou !
Aerial photo of Combe Down allotments courtesy of @tomburrowsmedia
6,101
The Decision Makers
Supporter Voices
Petition created on 19 December 2023