Big Plant Swap – Saturday 18th May 2024

Big Plant Swap

Saturday 18th May 2024
10am to 1pm

Free admission – all welcome

Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Plant Swap

Come and take your pick from hundreds of plants and seedlings at our popular annual plant swap – great for food growers and friends. You can choose from: Vegetables, Salads, Herbs, Fruit and Wildlife-friendly flowers.

You’re very welcome to bring along plants, seedlings, cuttings or seeds to swap.

Our top tips for plant swappers

• It’s really helpful to other growers if you can label your plants.
• You might like to bring along a trug, basket or tray to carry your plants home in.
• We advise hanging around to see what else appears during the morning.

Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to swap – you don’t need to bring something to be able to take something. You can make a donation in exchange for your plants.

We also accept donations of plants ahead of the event – please email us if you have something to share: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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Lots more to enjoy…

Stalls, including local produce on sale.

Seed Swap – vegetables and other seeds to swap or buy.

Plant some seeds to grow on your windowsill.

Craft Corner for children.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes.

Information about growing your own food.

Crop protection materials on sale.

Find out about local projects and events.

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Join us for lunch

Served 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy a healthy lunch at Newsome Scout Hall – with recipes for you to take home. We’ll be serving a selection of tasty salads from our Spring salad bar with pasta and roasted vegetables, plus a fruit pudding.

We ask for a small donation to cover the costs of making your lunch.

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Help out with our Big Plant Swap

Volunteer
We’re looking for more volunteers to help out with the event. Can you help with our stalls on the day, or can you bake a cake? Expenses happily provided. Please contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com if you’d like to help out.

Print our poster
Help us to promote the event:
Big Plant Swap poster 2024 (PDF)

Stalls & info

If your local group or organisation are interested in having a stall at one of our events or you’d like to bring some local information to share on the day, please get in touch: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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What happens at the Plant Swap?
Here’s a short film about Growing Newsome’s Plant Swap, made by Alistair I Macdonald at Curlew Films for Plant it Grow it Eat it.

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Autumn event – Saturday 21st October 2023

Love local food? There’s lots for you to enjoy at this event…

Autumn event

Saturday 21st October 2023
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Get together with other food growers, neighbours and friends.

Autumn-planting vegetables to grow at home or on your allotment.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes available.

Lots of jam and preserves made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome

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Autumn planting

Autumn planting vegetables for you to take home – including a selection of garlic bulbs, onions, seeds, overwintering leaf crops and anything else we can rustle up. You can also let us know what kind of seeds and plants you’d like us to have available in 2023.

Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn event

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Meet our guest local organisations including:

Huddersfield Raw Honey – with local honey on sale.

Yorkshire Dama Cheese – with Squeaky cheese on sale

Growing Works – who are helping out on the day.

And there’s more to enjoy from Growing Newsome:

Book stall with all sorts of books.

Children’s craft activities.

Information about local events, activities and volunteering.

Look after your winter crops – plant protection fleece on sale.

Got something to share?

You can bring along spare fruit or vegetables, seeds, recipes or anything you’d like to share. 

Jam jar amnesty – clean, small jam jars (8oz, 120z or 1lb) that fit a 63mm lid are welcome.

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Hot homegrown lunch: served from 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy some seasonal soup for lunch at the Scout Hall, made with some locally grown vegetables and served with a selection of fresh breads, followed by a hot Autumn pudding made with local fruit.

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Newsome Voices

This summer the Newsome Voices team asked you to share your experiences of life in Newsome and your hopes for the future of our area. This included thinking about our climate, our wildlife and green spaces, our local heritage, our voice and influence, and our connections with each other. Over 300 people have taken part. Come along to our Autumn Event to get a first look at the results and find out how you can get involved in what happens next.

Newsome Voices – part of Local Democracy Week 2023 in Kirklees.

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How you can help

• Bring something for the cake stall.
• Display our poster:
  Autumn event 2023 poster (PDF)
• Bring along the rest of the family or bring a friend.
• We’re looking for volunteers.
  Please get in touch if you’d like to help.

Organised by Growing Newsome

Local organisations who are interested in taking part in our events are welcome to contact us.

Stirley Food Festival – Saturday 2nd September 2023

The Stirley Food Festival is back. Come along for lots of local food and drink, including our Growing Newsome stall, plus wildlife activities and pick your own veg. Special falconry meet and greet with Wild Owl bird of prey rescue, nature face painting with Sparkle Sam, learn wild foraging skills and much more.

Stirley, Hall Bower Lane, Huddersfield HD4 6FA
Saturday 2nd September
From 10.30am to 4.30pm

Stirley Food Festival 2023

Big Plant Swap – Saturday 20th May 2023

Big Plant Swap

Saturday 20th May 2023
10am to 1pm

Free admission – all welcome

Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Plant Swap

Come and take your pick from hundreds of plants and seedlings at our popular annual plant swap – great for food growers and friends. You can choose from: Vegetables, Salads, Herbs, Fruit and Wildlife-friendly flowers.

You’re very welcome to bring along plants, seedlings, cuttings or seeds to swap.

Our top tips for plant swappers

• It’s really helpful to other growers if you can label your plants.
• You might like to bring along a trug, basket or tray to carry your plants home in.
• We advise hanging around to see what else appears during the morning.

Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to swap – you don’t need to bring something to be able to take something. You can make a donation in exchange for your plants.

We also accept donations of plants ahead of the event – please email us if you have something to share: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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Lots more to enjoy…

Stalls, including local produce on sale.

Huddersfield Raw Honey.

Seed Swap – vegetables and other seeds to swap or buy.

Children’s craft activities.

Plant some seeds to grow on your windowsill.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes.

Information about growing your own food.

Crop protection materials on sale.

Find out about local projects and events.

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Supporting the Newsome Centre

Any cash donations we receive for plants at this event will be contributed to the Newsome Centre crowdfunder. A newly formed Community Benefit Society have some exciting plans to set up a new Community Centre, Cafe & Event Space in the former St John’s Church in Newsome village, By donating, you can help to buy the building for our local community, which will create new possibilities for our food growing community.

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Join us for lunch

Served 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy a healthy lunch at Newsome Scout Hall – with recipes for you to take home. We’ll be serving a selection of tasty salads from our Spring salad bar with pasta and roasted vegetables, plus a fruit pudding.

We ask for a small donation to cover the costs of making your lunch.

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Take part in Newsome Voices

Newsome Voices is an opportunity to share your experiences and ideas about life in Newsome, and to say what you hope Newsome will be like in the future. Launching at our Big Plant Swap, it’s a month of local conversations. You can take part on the day or take some information away with you and then take part either online, by completing a paper questionnaire, or by talking with any of the Newsome Voices team from 20th May to 20th June. Anyone who lives or works in Newsome, or who visits the area, is welcome to join in. The results will be used to create an action plan for our area.

Newsome Voices is organised by the Newsome Centre and our Newsome councillors.
It is funded by Kirklees Council.

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Help out with our Big Plant Swap

Volunteer
We’re looking for more volunteers to help out with the event. Can you help with our stalls or refreshments on the day, or can you bake a cake or two? Please contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com if you’d like to help out.

Print our poster
Help us to promote the event:
Big Plant Swap poster 2023 (PDF)

Stalls & info

If your local group or organisation are interested in having a stall at one of our events or you’d like to bring some local information to share on the day, please get in touch: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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What happens at the Plant Swap?
Here’s a short film about Growing Newsome’s Plant Swap, made by Alistair I Macdonald at Curlew Films for Plant it Grow it Eat it.

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Autumn event – Saturday 29th October 2022

Love local food? There’s lots for you to enjoy at this event…

Autumn event

Saturday 29th October 2022
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Get together with other food growers, neighbours and friends.

Autumn-planting vegetables to grow at home or on your allotment.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes available.

Lots of jam and preserves made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome

---

Autumn planting

Autumn planting vegetables for you to take home – including a selection of garlic bulbs, onions, seeds, overwintering leaf crops and anything else we can rustle up. You can also let us know what kind of seeds and plants you’d like us to have available in 2023.

Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn event 2022

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Meet local organisations including Huddersfield Raw Honey – with local honey available to buy.

Book stall with all sorts of books.

Children’s craft activities.

Information about local volunteering, events and activities.

Look after your winter crops – plant protection fleece on sale.

Got something to share? You can bring along spare fruit or vegetables, seeds, recipes or anything you’d like to share. 

Jam jar amnesty – clean, small jam jars (1 Ib or less) that fit a 63mm lid are welcome.

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Wild Plant Walk, 10.30am to 12 noon – now on Saturday 29th October

Find out how to use and identify wild plants, what you can eat and what plants you can use for health benefits. This walk is organised by our friends at Growing Works, who will also have a stall at our event.

Wild Plant Walk leaflet (PDF)

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Hot homegrown lunch: served from 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy some seasonal soup for lunch at the Scout Hall, made with some locally grown vegetables and served with a selection of fresh breads, followed by a hot Autumn pudding made with local fruit.

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Share what you love about nature

What do you and your family love about nature? On the day you can take part in the UK’s biggest ever conversation about the future of nature by adding something to a special tree. You’ll be helping to shape the People’s Plan for Nature, powered by WWF, the National Trust and the RSPB.

Part of Local Democracy Week 2022 in Kirklees.

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How you can help

• Bring something for the cake stall.
• Bring along the rest of the family or bring a friend.
• Please get in touch if you’d like to come along and help out on the day.

Organised by Growing Newsome

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We’re really sorry for the short notice, but due to an unexpected issue with our venue’s roof we’re having to change the date of our Autumn event (which was originally planned for 22nd October). Thank you for your patience.

Local organisations who are interested in taking part in our events are welcome to contact us.

Remembering David Browning 1939-2022

David’s 80th birthday, June 2019

I had the great fortune to meet David when he moved to the Newsome area and joined our community forum. He brought all his learning and decades of food growing experience with him. Always keen to help others and generous with his time and expertise, David quickly embarked on a tour of allotment sites, keen to investigate why local people were struggling to find an allotment, despite there being plots available “on paper”. His belief in seeing things for yourself and taking the time to understand how things really are for people is something that helped to shape Growing Newsome.

We first started working together through our shared interest in local land for food growing and wildlife. Through David’s contacts, we were able to work with Steve and Kate’s wonderful research company, who supported us to go out and ask hundreds of local people whether they wanted to grow their own food, and what might help them. The results were overwhelmingly positive – and three weeks after hearing those results, we held our first Growing Newsome event.

David at our first ever Growing Newsome event, May 2009

This was the beginning of a decade of working with David. In that time, we learned that we were growing far more than food – we were growing friendships and a shared sense of belonging. And David was a real friend throughout it all. Despite having worked on so many other projects, we knew that he really valued the work we were doing in our local neighbourhood and he encouraged us to share our learning with other groups and organisations. He was always looking ahead and was a great strategic thinker. But he also had a huge amount of practical knowledge and skills, which he was generous in sharing. He helped us to build growing frames at our community allotment and helped lots of others to build raised beds for growing food.

David helping to set up our Community Allotment, 2010

Each October he would run the garlic stall at our Autumn event in Newsome Scout Hall, using his encyclopaedic understanding of the different varieties and growing techniques to help people choose well. When discussing the health benefits of Growing Newsome in a workshop one day, he joked that he was sure we’d collectively lowered the blood pressure of half of Newsome by the sheer amount of garlic that we’d given out and encouraged people to grow over the years.

David with my mum and Cherry on our stall at Stirley Farm, 2011

The crops that David grew at his own allotment were as abundant as his knowledge. Once a year, we’d get a message saying that he was overrun with fruit and please could we come and pick some to help him out (though of course, he was really helping us). We were amazed by the huge crop of loganberries, the unfeasibly enormous blackcurrants, and the seemingly never-ending supply of berries from what came to be known as “David’s infinite gooseberry bush”.

We started Growing Newsome together in the belief that we all have something to share – that between us, we have everything we need to grow our own food. David was a great example of that. He shared so much with us over the years, and with me personally. More than once I would come home to find a little packet on my doormat which contained a wonderful book that I had not ordered, only later to discover that David had thoughtfully sent me a copy because he thought I might find it useful. I suspect that he quietly helped lots of people in similar ways, building people’s confidence and making sure that we knew how to do things ourselves, so that we could support other people in future.

David with me & a visitor at our Community Allotment, July 2015

This summer, we had a particularly good crop of loganberries and gooseberries at our community allotment. It made me think of David and remember the happy afternoons spent picking masses of fruit at his immaculately kept allotment, harvesting the fruits of his labour for people in our community to enjoy.

Diane, Growing Newsome

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You might also like to read this tribute from David’s friend Ali Stopher:

Celebrating the Life of David Browning

Big Plant Swap – Saturday 21st May 2022

Big Plant Swap

Saturday 21st May 2022
10am to 1pm

Free admission – all welcome

Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Plant Swap

Come and take your pick from hundreds of plants and seedlings at our popular annual plant swap – great for food growers and friends. You can choose from: Vegetables, Salads, Herbs, Fruit and Wildlife-friendly flowers.

You’re very welcome to bring along plants, seedlings, cuttings or seeds to swap.

Our top tips for plant swappers

• It’s really helpful to other growers if you can label your plants.
• You might like to bring along a trug, basket or tray to carry your plants home in.
• We advise hanging around to see what else appears during the morning.

Don’t worry if you don’t have anything to swap – you don’t need to bring something to be able to take something. You can make a donation to Growing Newsome in exchange for your plants.

We also accept donations of plants ahead of the event – just email us if you have something to share: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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Lots more to enjoy…

Seed Swap – vegetables and other seeds to swap or buy.

Stalls, including local produce on sale.

Children’s craft activities.

Plant some seeds to grow on your windowsill.

Tea, coffee and home made cakes.

Information about growing your own food.

Crop protection materials on sale.

Find out about local projects and events.

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Meet local growing and wellbeing organisations

We’ll be joined on the day by:

• Peaceful Remedies – including an Outdoor Yoga taster session at 1pm
• Huddersfield Raw Honey – with local honey available to buy
• Growing Works – with an activity or two for you to try

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Join us for lunch

Served 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy a healthy lunch at Newsome Scout Hall – with recipes for you to take home. We’ll be serving a selection of tasty salads from our Spring salad bar with pasta and roasted vegetables, plus a fruit pudding.

We ask for a small donation to cover the costs of making your lunch.

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Want to help?

Volunteer
We’re looking for volunteers to help out with our events and activities. Contact us at growingnewsome@gmail.com to find out more, or ask on the day.

Print our poster
Help us to promote the event:
Big Plant Swap poster 2022 (PDF)

Stalls & info

If your local group or organisation are interested in having a stall at one of our events or you’d like to bring some local information to share on the day, please get in touch: growingnewsome@gmail.com

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What happens at the Plant Swap?
Here’s a short film about Growing Newsome’s Plant Swap, made by Alistair I Macdonald at Curlew Films for Plant it Grow it Eat it.

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Autumn event – Saturday 16th October 2021

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Love local food? There’s lots for you to enjoy at this event…

Autumn event

Saturday 16th October 2021
10am to 1pm

Newsome Scout Hall
Newsome Road South
Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

Get together with other food growers, neighbours and friends.

Tea, coffee and homemade cakes available.

Lots of jam and preserves made from fruit and vegetables grown in Newsome

Autumn-planting vegetables to grow at home or on your allotment.

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Beekeeping advice and demonstration hive from the Huddersfield and District Bee Keeping Association.

Freshly picked vegetables from Yorkshire Wildlife Trust Stirley Farm.

Book stall with all sorts of books.

Information about local volunteering, events and activities.

Got something to share? You can bring along spare fruit or vegetables, seeds, recipes or anything you’d like to share. 

Jam jar amnesty – clean, small jam jars (1 Ib or less) that fit a 63mm lid are welcome.

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Autumn planting:

Autumn planting vegetables for you to take home – including a selection of garlic bulbs, onions, seeds, overwintering leaf crops and anything else we can rustle up. You can also let us know what kind of seed potatoes you’d like us to have available in 2022.

Garlic bulbs available at our Autumn event 2021

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• 

• 

Hot homegrown lunch:
served from 12 noon to 1pm

Enjoy some seasonal soup for lunch at the Scout Hall, made with some locally grown vegetables and served with a selection of fresh breads, followed by a hot Autumn pudding made with some local fruit.

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How you can help:

• Display a poster:
  Growing Newsome Autumn Event poster (PDF)
• Bring something for the cake stall.
• Bring along the rest of the family or bring a friend.
• Please get in touch if you’d like to come along and help out on the day.

Organised by Growing Newsome

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Local organisations who are interested in taking part in our events are welcome to contact us.

Pop up Plant Swap – Saturday 12th June 2021

Pop up Plant Swap

Saturday 12th June 2021
10am to 12 noon

An outdoor event

Newsome Scout Hall, Newsome Road South, Huddersfield HD4 6JJ

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Looking for some plants?

One of the best things about growing your own food is having something to share and enjoy with others. We are really missing having our usual events, where we can all get together to swap our plants, seeds and experiences. So although we haven’t been able to hold our annual Big Plant Swap this year, we’re pleased to say that we’ve come up with an alternative event. 

Come along to our outdoor Pop up Plant Swap to take your pick from our wide selection of edible plants, and a few other things. Our plants will include:

Vegetables
Salads
Herbs
Fruit
Wildlife-friendly flowers

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Got some seedlings or plants to share?

You’re very welcome to bring along plants, seedlings, cuttings or seeds to swap – but you don’t need to bring something to be able to take something (you can make a donation to Growing Newsome in exchange for your plants).

Some things that other growers have told us they are particularly looking for are:

Summer Squash
Cucumbers
Courgettes
Runner Beans
Red Cabbages
Dwarf Tomatoes
Sweet Peas
Strawberries

Greenhouse veg is always popular, and people also like to pick up some flowering plants along with the edible plants. If you have a request to add, please email growingnewsome@gmail.com

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Top tips for plant swapping

1. Please label your plants – it will really help our other growers. Or let us know what you’ve brought so that we can label your plants for you.

2. Bring along a trug, box or basket – anything handy to carry your plants home in.

3. See what appears – you’ll be amazed how many plants get shuffled on the day.

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How you can visit safely and keep others safe

It’s safer for us to meet outdoors – so our Plant Swap will be outside the entrance to Newsome Scout Hall.

Please sanitise your hands when you arrive (we’re providing some hand sanitiser). We also recommend doing this before you leave.

If other people are already at the stall, please give each other room and wait for a safe space.

If you’d like to avoid handling cash, we will be accepting contactless card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and payments from other contactless smartphones and watches (but you can still pay with cash if you’d like).

Please be reassured that we’re following public health guidelines and keeping in touch with our ward councillors. 

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How you can help

We know it’s short notice for our Pop up event. We really hope you can make it on the day – and if you can help to let other people In the local area know it’s happening, we really appreciate it. You might want to offer to pick something up for others who are isolating. We also welcome donations of plants ahead of the day. If you’d like to buy something but can’t get here on the day, please let us know and between us we’ll do our best to help.

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It’s Volunteers Week

A huge thank you to our organising group and to all our volunteers and friends, who make our events and activities happen. Want to join our friendly community of food growers? We’re looking for more volunteers to help look after our Community Allotment and to help organise our community events.

Please come along to our Pop up Plant Swap to meet other volunteers and find out how you can get involved.

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What usually happens at our Plant Swap?

Here’s a short film about Growing Newsome’s Plant Swap, made by Alistair I Macdonald at Curlew Films for Plant it Grow it Eat it. Things are a bit different this year, but the plant swapping is still the same – and we all love it.

Autumn Pop up Stall, 24th October 2020

If you’d like to get your autumn-planting garlic and onions from us this year, or pick up some locally grown jam and other things to enjoy, you van visit our Pop up Growing Newsome stall: Saturday 24th October from 10am to around 12 noon Outside St John’s Church, off Jackroyd Lane, in Newsome village Look out for our pop up stall on the path through the church grounds.

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How you can visit safely and keep others safe

Please arrive via the Lych gate (the covered gateway arch) at Newsome crossroads, at the corner of Jackroyd Lane and Newsome Road South.

If other people are already at the stall, please follow the distancing guidelines and wait for a safe space. We’re hoping to dodge the rain showers, but you might want to bring a brolley or shelter in the Lych gate if you need to wait a few minutes. 

Please sanitise your hands when you get to the stall (we’re providing some hand sanitiser). We also recommend doing this before you leave.

If you’d like to avoid handling cash, we will be accepting contactless card payments, Apple Pay, Google Pay and payments from other contactless smartphones and watches (but you can still pay with cash if you’d like).

In case the government guidelines for Kirklees change in the next few days, please be reassured that we have consent from West Yorkshire Police to hold our outdoor stall, and we’re keeping in touch with our ward councillors. 

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Choose your garlic

If you’re coming along to buy some garlic bulbs, you can find information about the varieties that we have available on our web site

Garlic bulbs available in 2020

We’ll also have some onion sets, seeds and plants available.

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How you can help

We know it’s short notice for our stall. We hope you can make it on Saturday – and if you can help to let other people In the local area know it’s happening, we really appreciate it. You might also want to offer to pick something up for others who have been shielding. If you’d like to buy something but can’t get there, please let us know and between us we’ll do our best to help.

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Supported by our councillors

Our new contactless payments facility is funded by the Newsome councillors, from their community response Ward Project Budgets. This is extra funding available from Kirklees Council to help all kinds of organisations who are supporting people in our local places during Covid-19.

We’d like to say thank you to our councillors, and especially to Cllr Andrew Cooper for his continuing encouragement and personal support.

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Thank you

We also wanted to say thank you to everyone who has shared some fruit or vegetables for our autumn preserves, and thank you to everyone who has helped us to organise the stall.

If you have any questions about the stall, you can contact us at: GrowingNewsome@gmail.com

Photo by Steve F, licensed for reuse under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 license.