Wotta Lotta Culture – The Birmingham Allotment Project

Two people smiling and sitting in camping chairs on an allotment
Project participants enjoying their allotment. Credit: The Birmingham Allotment Project.

National Lottery Grants for Heritage – £10,000 to £250,000

Date awarded
Location
Brandwood & King's Heath
Local Authority
Birmingham
Applicant
General Public Projects LTD
Award Given
£63200
This oral history project has celebrated the communities at the heart of the ‘allotment capital’ of the UK.

With 113 sites and nearly 7,000 plots spread across 631 acres, Birmingham has more allotments than any other UK local authority.

General Public, the organisation behind The Birmingham Allotment Project, has recorded 40 unique stories of life on the plots, helping unearth the hidden history of the city’s allotment culture.

Participants have also produced a newspaper and an exhibition at the Library of Birmingham to share the diverse ways the allotments have shaped people’s lives. 

An exhibition space containing brightly coloured wooden plinths and display boards, pumpkins and dried plants
The Wotta Lotta Culture exhibition at the Library of Birmingham. Credit: The Birmingham Allotment Project.

The project has also highlighted the vital role that urban green spaces can play in improving the environmental sustainability of our cities.

Working with local people, the project has brought the eco-friendly ‘make-do-and-mend’ attitude of the allotment community into the exhibition space by using:

  • 100% recyclable paper exhibition boards
  • allotment-grown flowers, fruits and vegetables for displays and decoration
  • pallets and found wood from skips
  • natural fabric dyes made from locally-grown materials

Chris Poolman, co-director of General Public, said: “The project has not only helped to preserve allotment heritage, but is also contributing to safeguarding the allotments’ future by articulating why they are more important to the city than ever before.”
 

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