FRIENDS of GRANTON CASTLE WALLED GARDEN
Annual General Meeting
Saturday 5th May 10.30 am – 12 noon at Madelvic House
Tag: Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
News from Granton Castle Walled Garden
Dear volunteers and visitors,
Early March was welcomed by blizzard conditions at the walled garden but spring is returning and the birds singing again. The Friends Group will be hosting another drop-in Open Door noon tour and would love it if any of the garden volunteers would like to help or just come along to catch up with everyone and have your say about the latest plans for the garden’s restoration.
The garden will be open from 12-2ish Saturday 17th March. (unless it is bucketing with rain or snowing then a cancellation will go out via Facebook on the day)
Lottery windfall for Granton’s Walled Gardeners
Awards for All grant for Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
Local community group Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden is one of 22 Edinburgh projects to receive a share of £1.1 million National Lottery Awards for All funding. The community group receives £9800 to commission a feasibilty study and conduct community consultation to plan for the future use and restoration of Granton Castle’s historic walled garden. Continue reading Lottery windfall for Granton’s Walled Gardeners
Granton Castle Walled Garden: make a visit your New Year resolution
Granton Castle Walled Garden
Saturday 6 January, 12 – 3pm
Gardeners Gathering at Madelvic House
SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 1pm – 3pm
MADELVIC HOUSE, Granton Park Avenue
Friends Group AGM – 11 March
Hi Friends Group members and supporters,
It is now time for our second AGM and very different news to previous years. If you have been following the story so far this winter has seen a change of heart from the garden owners Waterfront Edinburgh Limited and an agreement in discussion with the Friends Group to reopen the walled garden for community use this spring.
In an attempt to gauge numbers for our upcoming AGM for refreshments and snacks we hope you can take the time to let us know if you are attending. Please RSVP or register on the doodle poll. https://doodle.com/poll/
Best,
Kirsty
Walled Garden group goes for crowdfunding
Hi Friends Group members and supporters,
News of a Crowdfunding Launch by Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden. We hope to raise £10.000 to help get growing this summer and share the magical story of this hidden gem on the waterfront. Many exciting ideas to move forward now the garden is due to re-open in 2017!
Read more about the project and how to donate at MyPark Scotland mypark.scot/projects/space-to-grow/
Recent meetings with the owners and a visit to the garden in January highlighted some immediate safety concerns which the company are now taking care of, before an agreement to use the garden can come into force allowing community members access.
The garden is still very overgrown but with a bit of help and some funding we hope to get growing this summer, host activities and visitors to Granton’s lost Garden for the first time in over ten years. Share the magical story and potential of this paradise on the waterfront if restored to community use.
We hope this can be the beginning of local people exploring and cherishing this hidden late-medieval walled garden in the most unexpected of places, a post industrial estate in one of the least affluent areas of Edinburgh. Please share our crowdfunder appeal and donate if you can, every £1 helps.
Keep up with news and events on our WordPress page too space-to-grow-learn-and-dream
Hope to see you at the walled garden this summer, or why not come along to a Friends Group meeting, join in and help make it happen?
Best,
Kirsty
Postal Address
Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
c/o North Edinburgh Arts, 15a Pennywell Court
Edinburgh EH4 4TZ
Mixed fortunes for Granton groups
Joy for Walled Garden campaigners but Granton sur Mer is sunk once again Continue reading Mixed fortunes for Granton groups
Latest news from Friends of Walled Garden
Hi folks,
September and October have been busy with the Friends Group representing almost 700 petitioners at the City Chambers. The result:- the committee referred us to the Economy Committee with a recommendation that they help with the aims of re-opening and safeguarding the walled garden.
September was also the time we met regularly to pull together our ideas for a presentation to the developers on the 5th October. A thank you to those that attended our mini press-release. We tried to show the progress the group has made over the last two years, network of individuals and organisations involved, and a graphic plan of how the garden could be used for community benefit.
Designs and plan for the garden will be on display for comment from the start of November at the Muirhouse Community Shop on Pennywell Road.
A large scale version of the friends Group plan above will be displayed throughout November in the community shop for comment. We hope that the historic garden will be kept as Openspace in the ‘Masterplan’ being produced right now by the developers, and that an agreement can be reached this winter to allow the garden to be made accessible. We wait eagerly to hear from the developers following our presentation of community plans on the 5th October.
Upcoming November dates and events, free to everyone to join in.
November 29th – Field archaeology day with Historic Environment Scotland Staff – 12.30-4ish
Please get in touch if you would like to take part (please note not inside the walled garden as it isn’t open yet)
Our next Friends Group meeting will be at the start of November week beginning the 7th, as ever open to all members. If you haven’t attended one of our meetings before and wish to come along please get in touch and details will be forwarded. Any breaking news and progress shall be reported on our WordPress site Latest Post and social media as quickly as possible: we are now on twitter too @grantoncastle
Best,
Kirsty
Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden
c/o North Edinburgh Arts
15a Pennywell Court
Edinburgh
Walled Garden campaigners to state their case
The Friends of Granton Castle Walled Garden will be laying out their plans to landowners later today. Developers plan to build housing on the waterfront site, but the Friends group argues that the historic garden should be brought back to it’s former glory for the use of the local community.
A Friends group delegation will set out their vision for the restoration of the garden as a focus for community renewal in a presentation to the EDI group’s management team this afternoon.
Granton Castle Walled Garden is currently owned by the EDI Group, an ‘arms-length’ development compnay wholly-owned by the city council, who previously submitted a planning application to build luxury houses on the garden site.
However The Friends group argue that the garden should be:
a garden for all to enjoy, with a range of learning growing and arts activities and a diverse events programme.
a restored market garden run by the local community, supplying organic produce directly to local people, businesses and schools, and
a living heritage garden, serving as a gateway to the waterfront development and a social hub for existing and future communities.
At the meeting, FoGCWG will stress that all local community groups share the aim of retaining the garden as open space.
The Friends prepared specific proposals for the development of the walled garden as a community asset after the EDI Group appointed architects to prepare a new masterplan for Granton Waterfront. FoGCWG are keen that their proposals for the garden should be incorporated in the new masterplan.
Specific features of the proposals include a visitor centre and cafe, a kitchen garden, a heritage orchard, a workshop and demonstration area, a sanctuary garden. a medicinal and pigment garden, a restored glasshouse and a polytunnel.
Friends chairperson Kirsty Sutherland said: “With these proposals, an important part of Granton’s heritage can become a catalyst for development and community renewal on Edinburgh’s Waterfront. They offer a wide range of benefits in terms of health and wellbeing, social cohesion, cross-cultural integration, community education and local capacity-building.
“The restoration of Granton Castle Walled Garden as a community asset is supported by a wide range of local stakeholders and national organisations.”
You can contact the Friends group by email at grantoncastlegardengroup@gmail.com
The group also has a website at https://grantoncastlewalledgarden.wordpress.com/
