The Friends of Queens Road Allotments was one of the first groups in the UK to receive a Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) All Our Stories grant in November 2012. Our project is called” Not Lost the Plot”, and we were given £8100 to tell our own story, discovering more about the past by recording people’s stories and thinking about how times and tastes have changed up at the plots. All Our Stories, a small grant programme, launched in support of BBC Two’s The Great British Story – was designed as an opportunity for everyone to get involved in their heritage. The popular series presented by historian Michael Wood got thousands of us asking questions about our history and inspired us to look at our history in a different way through the eyes of ordinary people.
Not Lost the Plot is about trying to think about heritage in a new way, and demonstrates why we think it’s so important to keep these plots for the future. We’re exploring the place through photos and maps and talking to people about their memories. We’re looking at it from different perspectives, old and new. We have produced a film and booklet and all these will be accessible on this website. Our interviews will gradually be added too
A planning meeting for the volunteers in the project
Volunteers have received training from Leicester University and a local historian to help us in exploring the past and recording people’s stories. We have all gained new skills.
Thelma Slipper was one of the team of volunteers who recorded the voices of the allotmenteers.
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If you would like a copy of the booklet produced as part of the project clink on the link below.
If you would like to see the final cut of the Heritage Lottery Funded video telling the story of the Queens Road Allotments. See below
Queens Road Allotments 