The National Allotment Society - National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Ltd

Black Country Allotment Society

For this essay project featuring eight Sandwell allotment sites, author Susie Parr has produced a limited edition presentation box containing nine illustrated essay booklets together with a series of postcards, two maps, a commemorative allotment society pencil, plant markers, wildflower seeds and the DVD of the specially commissioned ‘Bee Movies’ by film maker Chris Keenan about Black Country beekeepers.

Susie told us that she was commissioned by Multistory – a Black Country community arts organisation, to work on a project about an aspect of Black Country life; as a keen vegetable grower and beekeeper Susie felt that focusing on allotments would give her the story she wanted to tell. Susie spent two years visiting the sites, at different seasons, getting to know the resourceful plot-holders and focusing in detail on various elements such as weeds, allotment food and the recycling inventiveness of one particular plot-holder. The Bee Roads booklet contains a delightful map of the route bees took around one allotment site and an analysis of the 200 different pollen grains found in one small sample of honey.

sandwell

 

 

 

“Walking through the allotment gate, you step away from the clamour and tensions of the street and enter a quiet place, a place of hope and order, where people connect with plants, the seasons and each other. In this work, I celebrate those connections.”

Susie Parr

 

 

We received this box of allotment treasures  in the office this week and in our view the images and stories in this box are an eloquent evocation of why allotments are precious. The essays give the plot-holders a voice that may not otherwise be heard and reinforce the reasons why developers should not consider building on allotment sites, why moving sites should be a last resort and why allotment lovers everywhere should work together to protect sites.

For more details about the project please click here.

Featured image Alison Parson’s shed, Bearwood Road allotments © Emma Case