2022 November On The Allotments

2022 Autumn moves along. The Fieldfares have returned, their sharp alarm calls accompanying walks around Wellesbourne fields. Skeins of Geese have delivered spectacular fly pasts - such powerful birds. Unusually, a Skylark was making its presence heard toward the end of October.

The site is in good health. The calm, warm weather throughout October gave rise to a very extended ripening season. Outside tomatoes are still being taken from the vine, grapes are looking very fulsome. Plots are looking unusually verdant for this time of year, there is still some flower colour – and a great deal of green – those pesky weeds never relax !

Winter vegetables are predominant now, many wholesome looking brassicas to supplement hot dinners, root crops awaiting roasting and stewing.

Nature is hunkering down – the allotments have given most of their produce for the year, the earth is settling down to rest for a few months, a quiet time of gentle tidying and preparation, in anticipation of the sun to begin rising higher in the sky again.

We have welcomed 12 new plot holders to the site throughout this year. They have generally taken on fairly tough gardening projects, and have transformed plots in short order. Congratulations, and thanks, to all of them, I do hope that you all have many years of pleasure in our community.

Stratford District Council (SDC) gave us an unwelcome jolt in the summer. We learned that SDC were to launch a public consultation on a ‘Revised Site Allocations Plan’ for the district. This reminded us, very forcefully, that the allotments have been submitted as a reserve housing site. Our landlord is Coventry Diocese, which made the submission, and would like to sell the site to developers in order to turn it into a housing estate – and into a very tidy speculative profit. 

In 2017 our association formed a subgroup to fight this intention, it is entitled Save Our Wellesbourne Allotments (SOWA). 

SOWA reformed in the summer, with new members, to lead the struggle to keep the allotments just as they are. Responses to the public consultation were formulated and submitted. Public statements of support for retaining the allotments have been obtained from our Parish Council, our Parochial Church Council and our MP Jeremy Wright. 

Much more is to be done. The language of local planning is dense. There are many professionals ranged on the side of the Diocese and developers.

SOWA consists of a few volunteer Plot Holders, giving their own time, expertise and energy. It really is a story of David v Goliath. We all know how that turned out – it really is a puzzle why the Diocese does not heed the bible? In so many ways!

Do take time to look at the SOWA section HERE on our website – it is a cause really worth fighting for