tom swailes' photostream  

Refurbishment of these buildings is proposed to create "The Ingersley Centre". The centre has the potential to act as a hub for community gardening activity and to contribute towards regional provision for the education and training of gardeners and for those like us Kerridge Ridge and Ingersley Vale (KRIV) volunteers, interested in the conservation and management of the wider countryside. The proposed refurbishment will provide the KRIV volunteers with the dedicated welfare facilities that we have lacked since the funded phase of the KRIV project ended and with a better venue for our own training courses.

To the right of the picture is the north wall of the garden - the south face of that wall gets sun most of the day whereas these buildings on the north face of the wall are in the shade. The largest and highest quality building in the group is the boiler house, furthest from camera. The idea is to extend that building through the garden wall and into the garden itself, to bring sunlight into the building and to take the building and its users 'into' the garden. From the garden side of the building, White Nancy can be seen to the west. The garden itself is a roughly square 'blank canvas' of about three quarters of an acre and the present proposal is to use a historic path layout to divide the space into zones for learning, cultivation and leisure.

We are looking to the Heritage Lottery Fund for support for the project and at present are part way through the multi-stage application process. If all goes well the refurbishment of the buildings would take place in Spring 2013, probably as an assisted self-build; some KRIV and garden volunteers providing semi-skilled labour to a professional contractor. Before that, as early as June this year, an archaeological investigation would be completed and before the archaeological investigation the KRIV volunteers will clear the garden of rubbish and cut vegetation down to expose any built garden features.

Shed 2 is on the way over....

Looking from the boiler house doorway towards White Nancy