Welcome to our site.

We are the students of Archbishop Ilsely Catholic Technology College, who have an interest in growing our own food.

The club has been digging since June 2008, in school and on a local allotment from December of that year.

Below is a brief history of our club.

The club started with a small piece of ground equivalent to half an allotment plot, inside the school grounds. The allotment is surrounded on three sides by buildings, and so is sheltered but lacking light. The soil was and still is very poor, with little or no humus, but to make up for it, plenty of stones and tree roots. The soil was very difficult to dig. Spades could not be used, so we used forks instead and in doing so we bent two of

them in trying to turn the soil and remove the stones. As we needed to be able to get on the ground at any time of year we made 8 beds 16 feet long by 4 feet wide. Surrounded by paths, from which we could tend the soil.

This year one bed contains marrows, squashes, and pumpkins, another bed contains potatoes, another with spinach, another with fruit such as strawberries and rhubarb, yet another is planted with herbs. This has only been possible due to us incorporating manure that Mr Price has brought in from farms in Worcestershire where he knows the farmers. But we have not been able to manure all of the plots so far, so 3 remain unplanted this year.

This year pupils have been using citizenship lessons to work the plots with Mr Price. From September the school plots are to be tended every Thursday after school and all pupils are welcome to try their hand.

The main plot and bulk of the land that we grow crops on is at Foxhollies number 2 allotments. Better known to its growers as Mayfield Road Allotments. The council allowed us to have the equivalent of three full plots, that are separated by roads from the rest of the plots. This ground had not been used as an allotment for over thirty years.