Holderness House Kitchen Gardens

Aim

Our kitchen gardens have been neglected for many years but with the help of our gardening volunteers, we're bringing them back to life.

Who are we, and what is our project about?

Holderness House, is a hidden historical gem in the heart of Hull.

Once the home of Thomas Ferens, one of the city’s greatest ever philanthropists, the house, grounds and a financial investment was bequeathed to benefit local women through a charity established in his name.  

For almost a hundred years, ladies have called it home but it’s now time for its next chapter.

The house is Grade II listed and we know that there’s a significant amount of work needed to ensure that it still supports our community in another hundred years.

Whilst still in development, our plans include reverting the property and grounds back to providing independent housing and greater access to our land for the community.  We also want to bring together the many wonderful voluntary and community services that support women.  All of this will see us move back closer to the original will and aims of Thomas Ferens for the house and the six acres of beautiful grounds it occupies.  

We have six acres of beautiful grounds including woodland and nature learning spaces.  We are keen that across our site we are promoting healthy, thriving communities by preventing, preparing for and protecting against the impacts of climate change.  We've already included space for pollinators and added drought resistant planting but we want to do more.

Our kitchen gardens have been neglected for many years but with the help of horticultural charity R-evolution and our gardening volunteers, we want to bring them back to life.  We want to encourage community growing, support biodiversity and increase learning, all whilst supporting the climate in our own small way.  

Why are we crowdfunding?

Whilst we concentrate our funding on the fabric of the historic building, crowdfunding to support work in our gardens allows us to progress this area too.  We have a growing number of volunteers joining us each week and everyone is itching to get the kitchen garden up and running.

It's not just digging out self-seeded saplings (once planning is approved) or planting some fruit and veg.  Our kitchen gardens are about learning too.  Working with our horticulture partners from R-evolution, we are able to support volunteers through City & Guilds training.  We are able to support people with developing employability skills and improving health and wellbeing.  The end product of having produce to take home or share with our community groups is a wonderful added bonus and we'll be giving members of the local community the skills and knowledge to carry this on at home.  Climate will be a common theme throughout this work from water collection and sustainable irrigation systems to companion planting.

How we’ll spend the money raised

Funding will be used to clear the kitchen garden space, preparing it for growing.  It will be used to purchase the items we'll need to get started - seeds, compost, trellis, hand tools.  It will support our volunteers through skills sessions.  Excitingly, it will also allow us to prepare for bee hives which will be arriving in the Spring ready to do their job pollinating in the kitchen garden.

How you can help

There are three simple ways to get involved and support our project:

1. Make a donation

Every pledge gets us closer to our goal. Early support can help build momentum and inspire others to give too.  Thanks to Aviva Crowd Funding, this is doubled (T&Cs apply)

2. Spread the word

Share our project with friends, family and your wider network. The more people we reach, the more likely we are to succeed.

3. Volunteer with us 

If you’d like to get involved, we’d love to hear from you. Please get in touch through the ‘Contact’ section using the subject "I want to volunteer my time or expertise" on our project page.

This project successfully funded on 28th November 2025