“Dig for Victory”Garden and Orchard

At the outset of the project the land was heavily overgrown with brambles, nettles and all manner of weeds to the extent that none of the existing features were evident. After weeks of manual labour we had uncovered the bases of existing buildings plus the tops of the walls of an infilled emergency water storage reservoir. We also salvaged a WW2 Andersen shelter that had been modified long ago to house an old tractor. These were steel bomb shelters provided to households in vulnerable areas for the householders to assemble themselves in their gardens. The idea was that you excavated a pit for the shelter and covered it with as much protection as you could. Many families spent their nights in these shelters when air raids were taking place

A couple of years down the line and you can see the transformation in this area. A “Dig for Victory” garden has been created with the Andersen shelter as its centrepiece. This recreates a typical domestic back garden with most of the beds being used to grow a variety of everyday foodstuffs.

The interior of the emergency water storage reservoir has been turned into a neat lawned area in front of the orchard area that has been recovered from the tangled growth that had previously enveloped it. The orchard forms a pleasant shaded environment where it is hoped that visitors will be able to sit and enjoy a picnic or just relax.

Thanks to the efforts of our volunteers virtually all of the site has now been landscaped as the pictures below demonstrate.