Page 56 - ALG Issue 3 2016

North West
Welcome to our new members...
Albert Avenue Allotments Walkers Lane Allotment Assoc 2 Societies
Participation of Salford Allotment Federation in a European Urban Soils Project
Chairman, Don Booth, was selected
to host a Salford Allotment Federation meeting by Alan Hull from NWCAA. The meeting was about a European Urban Soils Project which is funded by the transnational SNOWMAN Research Network. This Network wants to develop and share knowledge on the sustainable use of soil and groundwater.
In January 2016, two researchers from the University of Liege, Belgium, visited Salford to outline the project and discuss the involvement they would like from Salford Allotment Federation. The Urban Soils Project has partners in several European countries and its overall objective is to study links between social, agronomic and health aspects of collective urban gardening in Europe. The main output will be a guide of different practices in different European Countries for stakeholders.
Salford Allotment Federation was asked to help with studying the relationship between urban collective gardening (allotments in Salford), soils and soil pollution and health. This includes why people grow food together, their different backgrounds and practices, the impact
on soil quality, agronomic processes, environmental risks, and health bene ts. Chairs, site managers and plot holders
are knowledgeable and can provide a huge amount of relevant information for the project. We were asked to distribute Urban Soils questionnaires to the Chairs of all 26 allotment sites in Salford to gain an overview, then distribute detailed questionnaires via Chairs to plot holders on each site to enable the researchers to gain more knowledge about motivation,
practices, bene ts and perceptions. We were also asked to identify two sites from which soil and plant samples could be taken by specialists for analysis. This
is currently work in progress and when questionnaires have been returned, we will receive a further visit from the researchers. Pat Walkington
Local Shows
Here in the eastern reaches of the Manchester conurbation, on the Lancashire/Cheshire/Derbyshire border, we are blessed with many local horticultural shows. In Tameside we have quite a few shows, as several towns came together to form Tameside and most of these towns had their own horticultural shows. These shows
were a source of great pride and civic well-being, and, of course, bragging rights. Tameside Council created a Tameside Show which has since been cut, but it may be resurrected in the future with a slightly different format.
Tameside Allotment Federation looked at the schedule of shows, and we were amazed at how the calendar was lled in September. The show schedule for the Tameside areas is as follows:
August 21st Hyde Allotment Show - Flowery Field Centre August 28th-29th Mottram Allotment Show - Stalybridge
September 3rd September 10th September 10th September 18th September 25th October 29th November 7th
Saughton Green Society Show - Denton
59th Annual Sunshade Show - Ashton-u-Lyne 4th Annual Mosley Show - G.L.Hall, Mosley Denton Dahlia and Chrysanthemum (early show) Win eld Dahlia and Chrysanthemum Show
87th Annual Poultry and Egg Show
Denton Dahlia and Chrysanthemum (late show)
This is quite busy, but I know some local shows have disappeared.
There must be many other areas with similar schedules but I was troubled to hear of several local shows that had ceased; perhaps they will run again, perhaps not.
Maybe there are areas out there that have even more shows? If so send an article into the magazine and let us all hear about it. J.G.Irwin (sec Tameside Allotment Federation and NW rep)
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