Week Twenty-Three: Trip to Wrexham

This week I took a trip to Wrexham to visit Social Prescribing projects that had a focus on art and horticulture. The trip was funded by the Wales Arts, Health & Wellbeing Network as part of their ‘Go and See Micro Grants’. My first stop was the Wrexham Miners Project where I learnt about the Gresford Colliery Explosion in 1934. I attended the Art4All inclusive art group for adults with disabilities and met with Peter, a student on the MA Arts in Health programme at Wrexham University. It was interesting to learn about the social injustice and local history of Wrexham before setting off to explore the local horticulture projects within the city.

The Miner by Josh Colwell

I met community gardener John who introduced me to Incredible Edible and U Are UK. Incredible Edible have transformed a couple of sites within the city centre into spaces to grow fruit, vegetables, flowers and herbs. The group have regular volunteering sessions to look after the sites and the produce is free for people passing buy to forage and take. They have even had interest from local businesses! The sites have also become a space for collaboration with local artists in the creation of murals and signs for placemaking which helps to make the spaces feel welcoming.

Incredible Edible Wrecsam

The U Are UK community garden can be found on the outskirts of the city and grows vegetables and herbs that are used to cook community ‘pay what you can’ meals at The Peace Kitchen in Wrexham. Members of the local community can take ownership of a raised bed to grow their own vegetables. It was interesting to learn about their ‘field to fork’ ethos and their focus on supporting the local community.

U Are UK Community Garden

I met with Tom and Evan from Wrexham Community Gardeners who introduced me to the sites that they look after in the local Marlon Hospital grounds. This included courtyards for departments such as the Occupational Therapy team, memorial gardens and spaces that could be used by staff and patients such as the chapel courtyard. Although the gardens are not all accessible to the public, they do provide a pleasant view from the hospital onto a little pocket of nature. This made me think about research that has found that a window with a view can speed up the rate of recovery within hospitals. Tom and Evan explained that every volunteer had a different reason for helping out with the gardens, and it was a pleasure to see that they were well integrated into the hospital.

Wrexham Community Gardeners

My trip helped me to focus on two themes: access and recovery. I thought about the components that make a community garden accessible - the location, the design of the space, and the welcoming nature of the people taking part. I thought about the restorative nature of horticulture and how this can aid the recovery of the volunteers that work to make these spaces so special. I thought about the benefits that these spaces bring to the wider community - whether eating the organic produce that has been lovingly grown, or whether it is being able to look out onto a pocket of paradise whilst poorly. Every person that I met on my trip was a volunteer and yet were so passionate about what they do and so welcoming and generous with the time that they gave to me. It made me think about how valuable these grassroots groups are and how important it is that they are prioritised with funding in order to sustain and continue.