Reviving the Baring Road Allotments

Aim

To revive abandoned allotment plots to create a welcoming and thriving food growing space to benefit the local community.

About Wild Rangers

Wild Rangers is a not-for-profit social enterprise dedicated to creating and enhancing local green spaces for the benefit of people, wildlife, and our environment.  We do this by helping to plan, project manage and implement green space improvement initiatives, and by providing children and adults of all ages and backgrounds with opportunities to access nature in fun, inclusive, creative and inspiring ways, through gardening and nature conservation activities. Our website project page features examples of past projects and the positive impact we've achieved - demonstrating our ability to bring about transformational community spaces.

This summer, we are partnering with the newly formed Lee and District Land Club committee to bring the Baring Road Allotments in Grove Park back into productive use, bringing our experience in delivering successful community greenspace initiatives.

Project Vision: Reviving Baring Road Allotments

Site Background and Current Challenges:

Revitalising the Baring Road allotments will support the wider community effort to improve local biodiversity, safeguard food-growing heritage, and create a lasting community resource. The site has significant historical and environmental value. It played an important role in the WWII ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign and sits within a valued green corridor which is part of a broader community-led vision to deliver The Railway Children Urban National Park and secure neighbourhood-scale climate resilience.

However, over half the plots have remained unused for a number of years. Overun with invasive brambles and unmanaged saplings have rendered the plots unusable without mechanical intervention.

Current State:

An Important Green Link Within the Wider Community Vision:

Aim:

Volunteers have begun initial clearance work, but funding is urgently needed to bring in professional contractors for the essential heavy-duty groundwork—such as mechanical clearance, digger work, and safe disposal of waste—tasks that exceed volunteer capacity.

Through this transformation, we will improve access and subdivide plots, laying the foundation for an accessible, inclusive, thriving allotment that promotes food growing, wellbeing, belonging, environmental learning, and community engagement.

Use of Funds:

This funding will enable completion of Phase One—the groundwork needed to make the site functional again. Specifically, funds will be used to:

• Hire a contractor with appropriate machinery (e.g. digger) to clear overgrown plots.
• Subdivide plots and reinstate plot pathways.
• Hire skips and remove accumulated refuse.

If we exceed our Phase One funding target, we will accelerate delivery of the following additional elements; the more we raise, the more we can achieve:

• Create a community-focused potager garden across two plots, featuring raised beds and accessible paths, with facilities such as a shed and polytunnel to support therapeutic gardening and green prescribing sessions.
• Make additional improvements to communal spaces to create a greater sense of community and belonging amongst users and visitors, as well as revive the concrete  buildings for storage and undercover gathering.
• Make a number of wildlife improvements, such as adding a small pond, which will also help create a resilient agro-ecosystem, with natural predators.
• Secure the rear site perimeter with fencing to prevent trespass and improve safety as well as renew entrance gates and fenceline with community notice board to make it more secure and inviting.
• Deliver structured wellbeing and learning programmes, including nature-based sessions in partnership with local GPs and schools. Notably, 8.4% of Grove Park residents report long-term health conditions and 9.4% provide unpaid care—both above the borough average

Benefits

Successfully delivering this project will generate a wide range of lasting social, environmental, and health benefits:

• Reclaim 200 sqm of derelict land and return it to productive, food-growing use.
• Enhance 800 sqm of communal greenspace, enabling inclusive engagement through open days, events, and workshops.
• Preserve and reinvigorate a statutory allotment site as a vital community asset, safeguarding its food-growing heritage for future generations.
• Reduce allotment waiting lists by subdividing larger plots into smaller, more manageable rod-sized plots—making growing more accessible to beginners, elders, and those with limited time.
• Strengthen community stewardship and pride, building on momentum from a newly elected site committee. Last autumn’s successful Apple Picking Day showed the site’s potential as a community gathering place.
• Support mental wellbeing, reduce social isolation and foster sharing in the community, particularly important as area just south of the site is ranked among the bottom 20% nationally for deprivation.
• Serve as an educational resource for three local primary schools currently lacking access to large green spaces within their grounds, supporting curriculum-linked learning, healthy eating, and environmental awareness.

October 2024 Community Open Day:

 We wholeheartedly thank you in advance for your donations.

This project successfully funded on 26th June 2025