Page 38 - ALG Issue 4 2017

Northern
Welcome to our new members...
Shield Row Allotment Society Association 8 individual members
38
President’s holiday...
Oh no he’s going to tell us all about his holidays, I hear you moan. Yes I am! But only because I came across a beautiful allotment site whilst away and I would like to share it with you.
Whilst going for a walk to the battlements at Berwick upon Tweed, Northumberland, we stumbled upon this amazing site called Lion House Allotments, who are members
of NAS. It was a partly walled allotment site and my son and I were leaning over the wall looking at some rather unusual plants to
be grown on an allotment, namely hops. A gentleman sidled up to us and said, “bet you can’t guess what plant that is” but he was
Lindisfarne walled garden
quite taken aback when we answered him correctly. It turned out that the plot we were looking at was his; he was a retired brewer who had worked for an international brewery. He grew these hops for himself and his friend for some home brewing. We nattered about allotments for a while (as allotment gardeners do), took a few photographs
and went on our way but what a beautiful addition it was to the environment.
The following day I came across a quite famous walled garden at Lindisfarne, designed by Gertrude Jekyll; it was past its best but still very nice.
Phil Gomersall
Lion House Allotments