By John Woodcock

In an overgrown corner of York’s oldest council allotments, there’s a forlorn reminder of the industry which helped bring them about. It’s a dilapidated railway wagon, perhaps built across the road by some of the very men who lived in the surrounding terraced streets and campaigned for the chance to garden.

When the Holgate allotments opened 110 years ago, many employees at the Carriage and Wagon Works were among the first tenants, early pioneers of a national political drive to ‘cultivate’ society as well as home-grown food. Their workplace has since followed them into history, but a symbol of those times is now the intended centrepiece of an imaginative project whose creators include an award-winner at the Chelsea Flower Show.

The planned Carriage Garden is something of a misnomer because the focal point is not some vintage coach but a workaday goods van, about a century old, which began life on the Great Northern Railway. The initials, GNR, are stamped on a couple of its rusty door hinges, and when the company was absorbed into what became the London and North Eastern Railway in 1923, air vents were fitted to its roof and bear the LNER logo.

York Press:

Paul Graham and Hannah Swierstra clearing ivy, with the 'workaday goods van' behind

It’s reasonable to assume that at some stage York Carriageworks played some part in the vehicle’s birth, upgrading or condemning, and its short journey across Holgate Road to the allotments. There’s no record of when it arrived there but a balance sheet of the allotment association in 1968-9 records that the plot-holders of the time used it for storing, among other gardening essentials, peat, bone-meal, 16 bags of lime, potash and a quantity of ‘hoof and horn’ fertiliser.

Over the years the condition of the site’s landmark has deteriorated but its restoration has now begun with repairs and additions to its mixture of hard and softwoods. By the summer of next year it’s hoped it will have the starring role in a scheme in part inspired by the area’s other initiatives, Holgate Windmill and the Backhouse project at West Bank Park.

In the words of those behind the Carriage Garden, which also envisages using railway sleepers to create terraces and seating around an amphitheatre, the area will become "a place to hold events, teach, learn, shelter, meet friends, share and have a cuppa.

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Artist's impression of how the completed garden could look

"It can be a place for all ages and we are excited by all the possibilities that could grow over the years. Holgate has a story to tell, with a rich heritage and an exciting future. We are delighted to have developed a fun, practical, engaging design, but this is just the beginning. The hard work starts with fundraising to get the basics constructed."

The total cost will be about £13,000 and the scheme is expected to benefit from a new on-line fund-raising initiative to be announced shortly which supports social projects in civic spaces. It’s already received £500 from Nisa, the chain of independently-owned convenience stores, and the city council is donating £1,500 to what is the oldest of its 17 allotment sites. Holgate accounts for 56 of the 1,300 plots across the city and allotments officer Darren Lovatt says they are enthusiastic about the project. “We are all for creating a flexible space. An allotment site need not be just about gardening but an asset of wider community value.”

York Press:

The gardeners: l-r, Jackson Hall, Hannah Swierstra, John Graham, Paul Graham, garden designer Simon Hall, Kay Watkins and Jean Graham

That ethos is already well-established there. Groups who garden at Holgate include St. Paul’s School and the charities Mind, the Friends of St. Nicholas Fields, and Lollipop, which brings together families of children and young people with hearing loss.

There’s proven pedigree behind the design of the Carriage Garden. It’s the work of landscape architect Simon Hall who became a Holgate allotment-holder soon after moving to York nine years ago. He has a track record of producing successful community projects, including several in Chicago. In 2010 he led a team which won a People’s Choice Award at the Chelsea Flower Show for the Rhubarb Crumble and Custard Garden sponsored by Welcome to Yorkshire.

It’s a long way in every sense from Chelsea and schemes beneath the skyscrapers overlooking Lake Michigan, but Hall relished the challenge of creating something new among the vegetable patches, flowerbeds and fruit bushes of Holgate.

“Think about it - a vacant plot with an old railway vehicle. For years it’s been a missed opportunity crying out for something to happen, something that triggers people’s imagination. We may even include a turbine to provide a power supply. I know from the experience of my six-year-old son that kids love allotments. They encourage them to grow stuff, and to think about the environment and food and recycling. That’s one aspect of the project, but we want to create an area that works on several levels, a place that inspires reflection, where you can have a cuppa, or show off your prize pumpkin.”

The trickiest part is likely to involve the quest to uncover the history of the railway relic which is to be reborn as a refreshment hut, and a place for displaying arts and crafts and allotment produce.

York Press:

Paul Graham inside the wagon, which will become a café and exhibition space

The Graham family has had plots at Holgate since the allotments opened in 1906. The uncle of 94-year-old John Graham got there first and since then John has been there as man and boy, but he knows nothing about the wagon’s background or when it arrived on the site. If anyone can shed light on the mystery, John’s son Paul would like to know so they can add the information to the project’s story. Email him at paulsue33@hotmail.com

  • To find out more about The Carriage Garden email holgatecarriageworks@gmail.com or follow @carriageworksYO Holgate Allotments Association are always keen to attract new people to the allotments. You can get on the waiting list via the City of York Council Allotment Officer.