The good life!

HARVEST time has proved more than fruitful for a Failsworth project bringing the good life back to Oldham residents.

The Grassroots Project, based in Marlborough Drive, has transformed a patch of wasteland into a thriving agricultural hub.

Established in July 2008, volunteers and organisations have created their own agricultural community, working the land and tending crops come rain or shine.
BEATRIZ AYALA went along to find out more.

MORE than a year of hard work has transformed a group of unused allotments that had fallen into disrepair and were blighted by flytipping.

Run by Oldham Council’s Adult Social Care service but open to all, the site now boasts an orchard, two polytunnels growing a range of vegetables and 30 hens among other features.

Although autumn has arrived at the two acre plot, the project is busier than ever, most recently taking a delivery of 20,000 bees which will enable staff to sell Failsworth honey and beeswax candles in the new year.

The bees are just the latest addition to the project which, through its steering committee and a group of dedicated volunteers, is striving to become entirely self sufficient with three pigs on the way and plans for a composting toilet, solar and wind power on site.

A portable cabin acts as a makeshift classroom for schoolchildren, with a larger cabin planned to accommodate an evening and weekend youth club, as well as provide somewhere for older people to hold coffee mornings.

Adding to its eco-friendly and self-sufficient aims, it will soon have a huge underground water butt and a green generator run on used chip fat to provide power.

Sarah Lewis, Grassroots resource manager, said: “The project was based on what was originally an allotment site which over the years began to get vandalised.People moved off the site so it became used for fly tipping and drug taking.

“When we decided to create the project here in July last year, we found 70 used needles and weighing scales during one clear up.”

Since then, a whole host of volunteers and organisations have been working hard and getting their hands dirty creating an agricultural oasis in the heart of Failsworth.

The two acre site is brimming with organic fruits and vegetables, from plums, strawberries and rhubarb to cabbages and onions inside its two 42ft polytunnels.

The whole scheme cost £150,000 to establish, with the money coming from Adult and Community Services, although British Waterways gave £8,000 to help the project as the canal runs alongside it.

She said: “We’ve got no hot water or electricity at the moment so people are coming here with flasks.

“With only two full time and one part time staff, as well as me, it’s a case of working together as a team.

“It’s the enthusiasm from the volunteers and groups that helps us carry on.

“We’ve got local children coming in, volunteers, people with learning disabilities, the elderly, and young people with mental health problems.

“They get to develop their own skills, learn new ones and see the fruits of their labour.

“We’ve got people aged 18 to 88 working together and everyone gets along.

A steering group of local councillors, representatives from the regeneration department and local community meet on a monthly basis to look at funding for the scheme and different events.

She said: “This project is for everyone, the whole community and so far it has been absolutely brilliant.

“We’ve been taking photos every step of the way, and comparing what the site looked like before to what it looks like now. It’s amazing, it is constantly developing.”

As well as a learning curve for some of the volunteers, the staff are also attending courses on a range of topics including how to raise and look after livestock.

“We’ve got no agricultural experience but we’re working from scratch. We are constantly learning new skills and staff are training in such things as bee skills.

Mrs Lewis believes the reason why it has worked so well is that the project has been built up by hand from the very beginning.

She said: “Children nowadays only sit in front of a computer, so for them to plant things from seeds and help them grow is great.

“There is a great demand for this type of facility in Oldham, and people who visit are saying how brilliant it is.

“The plan is for it to be a project for local communities to run, with them taking a lead role and hopefully for us to be at arms length.”

Councillor Brian Lord, cabinet member for adult services and health said: “It is a fantastic project that has attracted many different people, including children from local schools, young people involved with the training into employment scheme, people from the Link Centre and local residents.

“The success of this project has led to other schemes across the borough, with a similar site in Fitton Hill also thriving.

“The aim of all these projects is to provide a wide range of opportunities and at the same time become totally organic and self sufficient.”
The Grassroots Project is open Monday to Friday, from 9am to 4pm.


The Failsworth scheme is one of eight community occupation schemes operating across Oldham.

The others are garden centres in Chadderton Hall Park and Crompton cemetery; allotments and a community farm in Wildbrook Crescent, Fitton Hill; a woodwork centre at Southlink, Oldham; an arts and crafts centre in Stoneleigh Park, Derker; and a recycling service in Vulcan Street, Derker.