Allotment Collective Project Leader Sophie Read is recovering bricks from the Bicclescombe site.
There’s an old adage of “one man’s trash is another’s treasure”. In the past couple of weeks, the main buildings at the Bicclescombe Nursery site have been demolished, as part of North Devon Council’s enabling works in preparation for the Ilfracombe Community Land Trust’s project to build 16 new units of much-needed social housing. The demolished buildings were derelict and increasingly hazardous, but they were constructed from beautiful red bricks.
On the same day as the demolition, keys were handed over to the North Devon Salvation Army to begin work on creating a productive community garden at the Slade Vision Centre. This project, known as Allotment Collective, will bring together new community groups and create a resource space for existing groups, where people can get their hands in the soil, growing flowers, fruits, and vegetables, as well as cultivating relationships and connections throughout their community.
One of the key issues has been accessibility for individuals with mobility impairments and those using wheelchairs, as the ground at the garden is currently quite rough and uneven. However, thankfully, the treasure of the red bricks has been donated to the project to create a path running to all the planned key features of the garden.
The path, nearing completion, is built using the recovered bricks.
“We had looked at a few ways of creating paths, but the costs were looking to be impossible for us. The bricks will make such a difference – making attractive paths for people to get into the heart of the garden and enjoy coming together,” says Sophie Read, the project leader for Allotment Collective.
Reducing the need for producing new materials and reusing and repurposing existing resources means less impact on our environment and lower costs for local community initiatives, which fits very well with the values of the Ilfracombe Community Land Trust.