Civic opening for Fennyfold Community Garden project in Padiham

The Fennyfold Community Garden project, which received funding from the Lancashire Environmental Fund, includes the classroom and an event space with electricity to the site and toilet facilities.

Opened by the Mayor of Padiham Coun. Peter Haigh said: “The vision of a small band of locals to develop a site as big as this is unique in the community of Padiham and surrounding areas. This has taken years to achieve and and is another step in the right direction. Learning about horticulture, our wildlife, and mindfulness so our young and old can say ‘Oh my journey started at Fenny Fold Academy.’

“Encouraging our community that all green spaces are packed with exciting fun things to do, is one of the values the volunteers here have achieved. They are showing people through gardening activities and events how we are all shepherds of the future to protect everything in the food chain, from where our food comes from and how nature makes our environment so inclusive.

“Projects like this inspire practical experience of horticulture and inspires wellbeing of each other by looking after our environment.”

The Padiham and Fennyfold Allotments Society was established 21 years ago by Eric Fort and there are now 105 plots on the site.

The idea of a community garden came from a lady called Jane Towers eight years ago and in 2021 project leader Jean Hanson and a team of volunteers opened its doors to the public. Jean said: “We have organically grown through ideas and recommendations from our visitors and ambitions of our volunteers. We quickly realised that as well as joining together each week to share our skills and interest, we discovered from our visitors the importance of our young people having a place to grow and learn. Also, novice gardeners were missing out locally as they eagerly wanted to pick up tips and low-cost ways of setting them on the road to developing their gardens.

"So, in the past 12 months we have developed this green space for our community to enjoy.”