Community Gardens awarded Rotary funding

​Croft Committee members Laura Illingworth, Maureen Glynn, Jim Rose and Charlotte Dixon in front of the 'Bug House'

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The Croft Community Gardens have been awarded a £500 grant by The Rotary Club of Middleton.

The Croft Community Gardens are home to a small allotment and community garden in the heart of Boarshaw. The gardens occupy a triangular piece of land between Valley Road, Boarshaw Road and Green Lane.

The Secretary for the Society, Maureen Glynn, explained: “We now have 21 plots rented out to our members, many of them are local residents who were new to growing their own vegetables, and we have a community area that is used for social events and for growing vegetables with the school children from Boarshaw County Primary School.

"We are very grateful indeed to The Rotary Club of Middleton for their support and generosity. The grant will be used to further develop the community area and create a growing space for small fruit trees and to demonstrate how vegetables can be grown in small spaces and containers. We will also be able to buy some small gardening tools for the children when they come to help with the planting. These and other improvements will make the gardens more attractive and a safer place for the children to visit.”

Lee Wolf, Chairman of the Rotary Club of Middleton’s Community Service Committee, commented: “What Maureen and the members of The Croft Community Gardens have achieved over the last few years is remarkable and shows a real community spirit. This group has completely transformed the site and in doing so has created an oasis which the community can now enjoy.”

In 2010, the land which had previously been unmanaged, was developed by Rochdale Council, who created the foundations for the allotments and gardens. A small number of the local community gathered together to form a Society that would manage the site with one of their key focuses being, ‘To promote allotment gardening to the wider community of Middleton and to encourage participation of schools and other community groups’.