Lottery boost for Glossop Community Allotment

The makers and menders at Glossop Community Allotment are celebrating the news that the National Lottery has awarded them a significant grant to help convert a shipping container on the Dinting Lane site into a workshop.

The new facility - which will be the perfect venue for their Men's Shed project - will allow a greater range of people to make and mend and will benefit local groups, as well as the existing mix of older men, younger men with learning disabilities, and some women.

The Glossop Shed's driving force is Dave Sudworth, a long-time gardener and allotmenteer who has been converted to being a 'shedder' by seeing how much benefit the 'making and mending' sessions using minimal space on the allotment has created.

He said: “In the last three years, I have been amazed to see the difference a few hours spent in social but purposeful activity has made to people of all ages.

"I always knew that growing fruit and vegetables is restorative but, when I saw young men with severe learning disabilities blossom as they did jobs like painting a fence or helping hang a gate or older men come out of their shells as they reroofed the shed, created planters out of recycled wood or mended next door’s windblown polytunnel, I became a convert.”

Dave began advocating and fundraising and now, with the Awards for All grant of £9,970 safely in the bank, he is making plans to begin the conversion as soon as Covid restrictions allow.

The Community Allotment is part of the Be Well Partnership of wellbeing organisations whose Chair, Mick Owen, put the new development in context.

He said: “This is a huge boost for Glossop Community Allotment, for the Partnership and for the community in general. Our volunteers will be able to use the funding to create a warm, well-lit, well equipped venue for groups of any kind who want to explore and expand their members’ creativity or DIY skills.

"And for the main target group - older men at risk of isolation or loneliness - it will be a godsend. Up to eight people per session will be able to use the actual workshop with other linked activities still on offer on the rest of the allotment.”

People wanting more information or to put their name down for when the new Glossop Shed opens for business should contact the Be Well office line on 07590 839421.

Main image:

Dave Sudworth (left), a director of Glossop Community Allotment CIC, and Dan Griffiths, a regular Shedder, in front of the container on the Dinting Lane site.

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