In 1990 Rawdon East colliery was closed. That brought to an end 169 years of mining at Rawdon. With the regeneration of the coalfields, in late the late 1990's, Rawdon East got a face lift in the shape of landscaping the area into Rawdon East country park. Ashby Woulds town councillors lobbied for an area of the site to be reserved for allotments. And so it was that an area a little greater than nine standard 10 rod plots was reserved. A roadway and car park was laid and a rabbit fencing installed to enclose the site. A ditch was dug inside the perimeter fencing and two french drain were laid across the plot. A water pipe was run from the Rawdon road boundary of the country park to a stop tap on the site but neither end was connected to the main supply. The final act was to import top soil. The top soil came from a road development were the top soil had been skimmed off to make way for a roundabout. The soil is a beautiful Trent alluvial loam. A little free draining for some but very fertile.
A number of councillors and local residents took up the plots. Moira was still reeling from the mine closures and the new developments were wet, muddy reminders of what had gone before. In 2003, in response to an advertisement in the parish a new body of local residents came together to start Ashby Woulds Allotment Society proper. The inaugural meeting was held in the back room of The Woodsman public house. The usual posts were elected, Chairman and combined posts of Secretary and Treasurer as was a committee. Essentially if you had a plot you were on the committee. A constitution was created and we all signed up.
We even designed a logo...
The picture below is the plots, as we discovered them, on a grey autumn afternoon in North West Leicestershire.
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| AWAS Autumn 2003 |
