In the spirit of Gerrard Winstanley; a shout out for help from a neighbouring allotment group. Are you free on Saturday?

On St. George’s Day, Sat­ur­day 23rd April, 2011 we start­ed a Green rev­o­lu­tion in Ash­ton-under-lyne, Tame­side, in the tra­di­tion of Eng­lish rad­i­cal group The dig­gers who dur­ing the peri­od of the Eng­lish Com­mon­wealth, in 1649 reclaimed the com­mon land of St. George’s Hill from the Lords of the Manor by dig­ging and cul­ti­vat­ing it.

On St. George’s Day, Sat­ur­day 23rd April, 2011 we start­ed a Green rev­o­lu­tion in Ash­ton-under-lyne, Tame­side, in the tra­di­tion of Eng­lish rad­i­cal group The dig­gers who dur­ing the peri­od of the Eng­lish Com­mon­wealth, in 1649 reclaimed the com­mon land of St. George’s Hill from the Lords of the Manor by dig­ging and cul­ti­vat­ing it.

After years of delay by Tame­side Coun­cil prospec­tive allot­ment hold­ers in Ash­ton have now organ­ised our­selves to take over con­trol of the land on Ash­ton Moss that had been allo­cat­ed for the replace­ment allot­ments, sup­port­ed by sym­pa­thet­ic
vol­un­teers we came togeth­er in a day of action to reclaim the allot­ments from Cord­ing­leys who have neglect­ed and mis­man­aged the land.

Back­ground

In 1996 at the time of the devel­op­ment of the M60 Motor­way, Ash­ton Moss allot­ment sites were tak­en out of use and the land was giv­en by Tame­side Coun­cil to local estate Agents, Cord­ing­leys, to devel­op for busi­ness and leisure use, the con­tract includ­ed pro­vid­ing alter­na­tive allot­ment sites

Peo­ple on the Coun­cil’s allot­ment wait­ing list who were promised plots on the site are still wait­ing, although the allot­ment site was
devel­oped by Cord­ing­leys over 7 years ago, we have now been told that the site is not due to be hand­ed over in the near future.

Ash­ton Allot­ment Action now intend to take direct action to start
cul­ti­vat­ing the allot­ments as a mat­ter of urgency. Because the land has not been cul­ti­vat­ed, since it was devel­oped it has now become over­run with weeds, prin­ci­pal­ly Soft Rush which needs to be cleared before we can start grow­ing fruit and veg­eta­bles. We intend to clear the weeds from a part of the site and to the plant seeds or seedlings.

Reg­u­lar Sat­ur­day Action days

We invit­ing every­one to come along to our action days and help us, every Sat­ur­day from 10.00 am

Please come along and sup­port our action days, come when you want and stay as long as you want, please bring your own hand tools, food and drink

The allot­ments are locat­ed on Moss Lane, which is a rough track
run­ning from a junc­tion of Lord Shel­don Way, left turn from
Droylsden/Manchester, right turn from Ash­ton.

If you are com­ing by car, it could be advis­able to park at the leisure park and walk over the round­about and motor­way bridge, where you will find a foot­path lead­ing to the allot­ments

Ash­ton Moss Allot­ment site co-ordi­nates
OS X (East­ings) 392221
OS Y (Nor­things) 399178
Near­est Post Code OL7 9LA
Lat (WGS84) N53:29:21 (53.489254)
Long (WGS84) W2:07:07 (-2.118708)

Please view our video of the 23/04/11 Action day http://you.tube/8X0qjO_UxkQ

For fur­ther infor­ma­tion and direc­tions con­tact Nigel 07709056079

For his­to­ry buffs, the Dig­gers’ pam­phlet online:
http://www.bilderberg.org/land/poor.htm

http://ashtonallotmentaction.wordpress.com/