News

Monday 9th August 2010 - Contractors invited to tender

Tender documents have been issued to contractors today, inviting them to quote for work on construction of our garden, which is due to start later this year.

Saturday 7th August 2010 - More site clearance

This morning members of the group cleared vegetation from the walls at the back of Valentine Street, ready for work to start on garden construction next month.

Thanks to everyone who took part.

Thursday 5th August 2010 - Garden awarded a fruit trees grant

More good news! Norfolk County Council have awarded us up to £550, which is a 100% grant toward 20 fruit trees and planting accessories as part of their Conservation Grant scheme. Many thanks to Jason Kidman for alerting us to this grant when we met at the St Benedict's Street Fair in July, and for approving our application.

Monday 2nd August 2010 - Garden awarded grant towards gates

We have just accepted a grant from Norfolk Community Foundation Grassroots grant fund of £2000 specifically to pay toward the £3000 gates. Combined with the £250 received from the John Jarrold Trust we now only need a further £750.

Any local businesses willing to sponsor this final amount will be recognised by signage on or near the gates and in all our publicity.

Friday 30th July 2010 - Garden featured in Eastern Evening News

Earlier this week the garden featured in an article in the Eastern Evening News. See Community garden gets cash boost.

Monday 26th July 2010

Committee meeting held at the Belvedere Centre, Belvoir Street, Norwich.

Sunday 11th July 2010 - St Benedict’s Street Fair

We were fortunate to have another hot and sunny day for the St. Benedict's Street Fair, which brought a real buzz and carnival atmosphere to the Norwich Lanes. Our fundraising stall was very popular - especially the strawberries! We made a profit of £112.18. View pictures of the event.

Thanks to Caroline and Peter Brimblecombe for sponsoring one of our fruit trees.

Tuesday 6th July 2010 - Latest news on our gates and railings

Rackham Engineering Ltd have started work on our iron railings.

Many thanks to the John Jarrold Trust for a contribution of £250 towards the garden's iron gates. We have applications pending with the Norfolk Community Foundation and the East of England Co-operative community fund to cover some of the remaining £2750 we need to raise.

We would welcome any other donations from local businesses or individuals.

Tuesday 6th July 2010 - Tenders welcome for landscaping work

Technical drawings for the tender documents have been made by Mark Ashurst of A Squared Architects. These are now with Andrew Morton QS to draw up a schedule of works.

Any landscape contractors who are interested in receiving an invitiation to tender for the £50,000 work should contact us.

Monday 5th July 2010 - Mile Cross Community Festival a success

We had a fundraising stall at the Mile Cross Community Festival and Classic Car Show in Sloughbottom Park, Norwich.

We sold bric-a-brac and home-grown plants, met many members of the public and found new supporters for our garden. We made a profit of £80.

Thanks to David Smith for agreeing to sponsor one of our fruit trees.

View pictures of the event.

Saturday 3rd July 2010 - Successful Lottery Bid

We are pleased to announce that our lottery bid for £50,000 has been accepted by the Big Lottery Community Spaces fund. We are now in the process of putting together tender documents and are looking for a suitable landscaping contractor to work on the hard landscaping. Read more....

Tuesday 15th June 2010

Committee meeting held at the Belvedere Centre, Belvoir Street, Norwich.

Sunday 16th May 2010 - Garden featured in Eastern Evening News

Several group members assembled this morning for a press photograph for the Eastern Evening News (see top right photo on this page). On Tuesday 18th May the newspaper is going to feature an article on the group's appeal for funding for a pair of iron gates for the entrance to the garden.

Wednesday 12th May 2010 - Help needed with iron gates

£3000 is needed to complete security for proposed community garden.

We are appealing to local companies and businesses to fund the cost of some rather splendid iron gates to secure the garden at night time. Having been awarded £9,400 in January, specifically for iron railings, we were approached by three Norfolk engineering companies. Having looked at all three quotes we have decided to appoint K Rackham and Son Engineering Ltd who come with some excellent references. Examples of their railings can be seen all over Norwich including the Cathedral Close and many city parks. Read more...

Saturday 1st May 2010 - Inanna's Festival sponsors a fruit tree

Thanks to Inanna's Festival for agreeing to sponsor one of our fruit trees.

Food producing 'Druid Trees' include apple, hazel, elder and heather.

Apple is the sacred tree which rules the half of the year from Mayday to Hallowe’en and provides many wonderful things to eat and drink. Hazel is the sacred tree for the moon-month 5th August-1st September, and has nourishing and delicious nuts and a variety of magical and medicinal associations.

Inanna's Festival, 2 St Andrew's Hill, Norwich, NR2 1AD. Telephone: 01603 626133.

Thursday 22nd April 2010

Committee meeting held at the Belvedere Centre, Belvoir Street, Norwich.

Friday 9th April 2010

Fiskars are donating funds, tools and materials to community garden groups. Please visit the Fiskars Orange Thumb website here and nominate Grapes Hill Community Garden.
If we win we will have the assistance of a team of Orange Thumb volunteers and Fiskars garden tools.

Saturday 13th March 2010 - Successful second fundraising gig

Our successful second Fundraising Gig at the Belvedere Centre in Norwich raised £235.90 for the group. Curly Blows It Dry played some very danceable music, and were supported by John Brown and Urban Oasis.
View photos from the evening.

Tuesday 9th March 2010

Saturday's upcoming gig is featured in South Norwich News.

Sunday 7th March 2010 - Site clearance takes place

Members of the group spent the day clearing litter and bushes from the site. We had to do this work before the start of the nesting season, so that site work can be carried out during the spring and summer without disturbing nesting birds. Thanks to everyone who took part.
View photos.

Friday 26th February 2010 - Garden wins a Norwich EcoAward

We were extremely pleased to win an award at yesterday's Norwich EcoAwards 2010 ceremony, in the category of Eco Community Group.

The award was made by the Sheriff of Norwich, Professor Tim O'Riordan, at City Hall in Norwich.

Four members of the group attended the ceremony.

Friday 29th January 2010

Good news! We have just received £9,400 via Norwich City Council for the installation of secure railings and a gate for the garden.

We are now looking for a local business to bid for the work. Interested parties should contact us on 07729 540 482.

The money is provided as part of RESPECT funding provided to Norwich City Council by the Department of Children, Schools and Families (DCSF) in recognition of Norwich's work to tackle Antisocial Behaviour as a RESPECT Action Area.

We are also in the final stages of submitting an application to Open Spaces Lottery fund to pay for the construction of the garden itself having recently completed local consultation on plans drawn up by City Council architect Lara Hall.

Wednesday 13th January 2010

Thanks to everyone who commented on the garden plans.

The final deadline for comments was Tuesday 12th January 2010 and we are now in the process of submitting a lottery funding application to pay for building the garden.

Wednesday 16th December 2009

Read about us on the Evening News 24 website.

Sunday 29th November 2009

Fundraising Christmas Cards are now available, price 40p each, £1.50 for five or £2.50 for ten.

Postage and packing costs 50p for every ten cards. E-mail or phone Fran on 07729 540 482 to order.

The design is by group member Vanna Bartlett, based on Danny's GHCG logo.

 

 

Monday 26th October 2009

Lara Hall, our Garden Designer, has prepared an Initial Sketch of the garden design, funded by a £500 lottery grant.

Saturday 24th October 2009

The Belvedere Centre proved to be an excellent venue for our first fundraising gig on Saturday 10th October and led to further enquiries from musicians willing to play for us in the future. There was a healthy mixture of SweetBeats fans and members of our local community who had a second opportunity to look at the draft plans and offer suggestions.

Many thanks to The SweetBeats for playing at a much reduced fee, allowing us to raise a total profit £450. Over £100 of this was raised from the sale of plants and raffle tickets so thanks again to all who donated plants and prizes. Donors included The Greenhouse on Bethel Street and The Green Grocers on Earlham Road. A final thank you to Dave Sturgess and Patrick Goodall of Urban Oasis who kept us all entertained in the interval.

Saturday 10th October 2009

We had confirmation that the Lottery would fund us £500 towards our plans for the garden, which will be managed by Groundworks UK.

Saturday 10th October 2009

Successful first Fundraising Gig by The SweetBeats.

Monday 5th October 2009

General Meeting at The Belvedere Centre, where three new committee members were elected, bringing the total to seven.

Friday 2nd October 2009

Grapes Hill Community Garden and The SweetBeats gig feature in the October 2009 edition of "VoluME" digital magazine, which can be downloaded from the BBC Norfolk website.

August 2009 Press Release

The latest news on the Grapes Hill Community Garden, issued as a Press Release.

25th July - 2nd August 2009 - Love Parks Week

Please nominate Grapes Hill Community Garden for Love Parks Week on the Fiskars Orange Thumb website.

If we win we will have the assistance of a team of Orange Thumb volunteers and loads of great Fiskars garden tools, to help rejuvenate our site.

Friday 24th July 2009

Grapes Hill Community Garden website launched.

Saturday 11th July and Sunday 12th July 2009

Peter and Fran Ellington attended a weekend course at the Agroforestry Research Trust in Totnes, Devon to get some ideas on planning, designing and maintaining a forest garden.

We hope to incorporate these ideas into the final design. The course included a visit to an established forest garden.
See photos from this event.

Friday 3rd July 2009

Paul Wade from Norwich City Council confirmed that he has successfully bid for funding through the Safer Norwich Partnership for City Care to supply iron railings and a gate for the site.

We now have to apply for planning permission to erect these and find either the money or willing volunteers to put them up.

Tuesday 30th June 2009

Meeting on site with a garden designer who has agreed in principle to get involved.

Thursday 18th June 2009

Members of the Grapes Hill Community Garden committee met with Big Lottery Open Spaces facilitator Marya Parker to discuss how to go about meeting the requirements of our application for a Community Spaces grant of £50,000, which has been passed at the first stage.

We learnt that we need to employ a qualified garden designer or landscape architect to draw up plans to scale with quotes for the work. We need to appoint an accountable body and we are approaching Norwich City Council to see if they will take on this role. We also need to appoint a lead professional to manage the project.

Sunday 14th June 2009

Several members met at the Bowthorpe Heritage Community Garden just off Toyle Road in Norwich. Madge Roberts showed us around the garden and talked to us about their experiences. We gained lots of inspiration and thoroughly recommend a visit to this site.

Wednesday 10th June 2009

Fran presented an update to the West Pottergate Tenants and Residents Association on the progress made since presenting the idea to the group this time last year.

Tuesday 9th June 2009

Several members gathered to watch the DVD 'A Year in a Forest Garden' by Martin Crawford of the Agroforestry Research Trust. This was in response to suggestions made at our awareness day in February.

Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th May 2009

Three members attended the Norfolk Master Composters' course run by Norfolk County Council and Garden Organic at the Swaffham EcoTech Centre. See photos from this event.

Sunday 22nd February 2009

The Community Awareness and Fun Day was a great success. See photos from this event. Our special guest was Bob Flowerdew.