Barracks Lane Community Garden Project
Barracks Lane opened its Oxfordshire doors in May 2007 after an epic battle to clean up what used to be a disused garage, plagued with burnt-out cars, rubbish and asbestos, which felt unsafe to locals.
Project volunteers raised an amazing £60,000 to remove the 500 tonnes of contaminated material found under the concrete so they could create this very special Breathing Place.
The people
Next door to the garden lives project Chair John Green who, alongside his partner, led a local community group through a four-year struggle to secure the site. The lease was finally granted in early 2007 and the development of this lovely garden since then is testament to their dedication and passion for all things green.
Under a new scheme called ‘Garden Guardians’ each of the nine volunteer trustees that make up the project team take it in turns to open up the garden every weekend for people to enjoy.
Barracks Lane has created strong partnerships during the course of its existence. A yurt standing at the front of the garden was commissioned by the Tent City project in partnership with local schools, who chose the garden as the site of their creation. Forest Schools, which focuses on giving local school children the chance to experience the woodland, makes use of the yurt, often working with children struggling to stay in the system. The yurt is often used as a meeting place for eco environmental housing groups, and the team also work with four local schools, securing the garden’s place at the very heart of the community.
The place
The garden was developed in consultation with local residents who asked for somewhere they could gather and feel safe in this predominantly urban area. Early garden designs were submitted by East Oxford Primary School in 2004 and elements of these are built into the garden today! John believes the success of project is largely built upon this close relationship with the community.
Breathing Places visited on Bonfire Night when locals were invited to parade through the gardens with brightly-coloured, home-made lanterns (created during one of Barracks Lane's many workshop sessions) accompanied by magical tales from a storyteller and the smell of potatoes baking in the cob oven, built by the resourceful team in two days from smashed up builders' rubble!
Wildlife has started to appear in the garden and school groups will soon be increasing habitat potential with winter planting activities. Future projects include the building of compost toilets with a ramp and steps for disabled access, which in addition to the community compost scheme will eventually reduce the costs of buying compost and allow John to ditch his unenviable task of emptying the portaloo!
The Big Lottery Fund award arrived in a time of financial crisis and enabled the team to complete landscaping, build a ramp for disabled access, install running water and build a shed for storage with solar panels to provide power for lighting.
Opaque water butts holding 1 000 litres were built to collect water running from the roof of the shed and allow children to measure weekly rainfall and evaporation rates – John has plans to use gravity feed from the containers to irrigate land below which lies on a natural slope.
