Community Design Charrette — 28 October to 1 November 2024 — the task

Charlea Community Gardens Community Interest Company (Charlea) owns a c.3 acre site in Brimscombe Stroud consisting of two fields. One of the two fields (The Play Area field) has recently been acquired from a developer following three refused planning applications. That field has been neglected over the past years and is in an overgrown and poor ecological condition. The field acquired by Charlea in 2016 has been recovered from an overgrown state. The works undertaken include tree planting, hedge laying, building of a paddock, new habitats introduced, and picnic areas created.

The project now is to create a ‘Community Farm and Gardens’ which will become a significant community facility both for the immediate community and also for the whole parish of Brimscombe and Thrupp.

Requirements:

• A natural children’s play area which encourages outdoor creative play activities where natural features such as plants, trees, and water are used to make dens, dig, and generally encourage physical and adventurous challenges.
• Keeping of livestock to both manage the land and also engage people in looking after animals and poultry. Charlea CIC has already established a community chicken club and a community pig club which brings people together to look after livestock.
• Community garden in order to encourage the growing of food. There are no allotments near this area and therefore we would establish a community garden whereby people would come together to grow food and share both tools and labour. Any surplus food would be given to the local food bank.
• Community orchard. The Play Area field did have an orchard until 4 years ago when the fruit trees were felled by the private owner. We would re-establish the orchard and bring local people together to plant, care for, and harvest the fruit. We will also consider growing vines and hops given the south facing nature of the site.
• Nature conservation. We shall adopt a nature conservation approach as an integral part of creating the community farm and garden. Charlea has a track record in improving habitats including planting trees, providing nesting boxes, and restoring poor condition hedgerows.
• The Community Farm and Gardens will also provide a natural space for health and wellbeing activities including outdoor exercise classes, volunteering opportunities, learning about gardening, and social events.
• The Community Farm and Gardens will demonstrate sustainable approaches to open spaces including rain water capture and community composting.

. . . to be continued Facebook