This website uses cookies to allow us to see how the site is used. The cookies cannot identify you. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with this. If you want to use the sites without cookies or would like to know more, you can do that here https://martineau-gardens.org.uk/resources/privacy/2017 has been the year we have celebrated 20 years of Community Gardening, dedicated a building to former patron Mollie Martineau and begun the refurbishment of the Pavilion. This is also the year that we begin the recruitment process for a successor to Caroline Hutton, Director of Martineau Gardens. Caroline is retiring, in Spring 2018.
If this is of interest to you, or somebody you know, you can access the application pack, by clicking here:
Deadline: Friday 10 November 2017, 5pm
Martineau Gardens will be closed for a week from Monday 20 November, re-opening on Monday 27 November – read on to find out more.
In our twentieth year we are refurbishing our Pavilion to ensure that this much-loved and oft-used building is here to stay for the future.
Red admiral on the Pavilion roof, during renovations … it seems to be enjoying our brand new roof
Last month, we ran a crowdfunding appeal to raise funds for the next steps of the refurbishment. We’re delighted to announce that whilst we still need donations to complete the refurbishment, we are able to commence phase two of the building works. Building works begin on Monday 20 November. As planned, we are knocking through internal walls to create a bigger space that will create a light airy room. Asbestos is being removed – in-line with health and safety guidelines, Martineau Gardens will be temporarily closed during asbestos removal. This means that there will be no volunteering for a week and we will be closed to visitors. If you wish to buy logs – please telephone in advance to check supplies and arrange a time to collect.
Creating a bigger space within the Pavilion will improve the welcome for so many of our visitors. There will be warm, dry classroom space for school children on educational visits; a bigger space for the groups who hire the Gardens for training courses and a more welcoming room for people hosting parties.
Check back here regularly for updates on our progress. To find out what we have achieved so far, click here.
Please donate to transform this crumbling building into a bigger space that’s warm and dry in winter, light and airy in summer.
Online donations: www. localgiving.org/charity/martineau-gardens
Telephone: 0121 440 7430 to make a card payment
Post: Post a cheque (made payable to Martineau Gardens) to Martineau Gardens, 27 Priory Road, Edgbaston, Birmingham, B5 7UG
… or pop into see us with cash. It all counts, and if you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further 25p per £1 you donate.
Midnight tonight …
Our Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal has just a few hours left to run, at Midnight tonight, on-line donations will close. Since Friday, a further £1,200 has been donated. We’re elated to witness the response. Thank you so much to all who have been sharing our film, the appeal page and donating. It’s worth it.
Please share our film and donate page here
If you haven’t yet, please donate, this building is for you too.
Remember, if you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further 25p per £1 you donate. £10 becomes £12.50, £100 becomes £125
Or you can post a cheque (payable to ‘Martineau Gardens’), telephone the Gardens on 0121 440 7430 to make a card payment or pop into see us with cash.
Like to watch it one more time?
It’s the final push!
We have but 2 days remaining of our month-long crowdfunding appeal to raise funds to refurbish the Martineau Gardens’ Pavilion. Refurbishing this much-loved building means Martineau Gardens can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet.
We’re tremendously pleased with the response so far, by day 17 we had reached 47% of our target.but we need to ask you if you can continue to share the message so that we can reach even more people. Please share our film and donate page: localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/
If you haven’t yet donated, would you consider it please?
What’s happening next?
We’ve already reported on the completion of Phase 1 of the refurbishments; Phase 2 is booked to start in November. We do have enough funds for work to commence, but more donations will enable us to fulfil all that we want to do. The Gardens will stay open during the renovations, but there may be a little more noise than usual, with access to some areas restricted. We’ll do our best to keep you informed, via the website.
Earth Oven Baking, Wildlife Activities, Day of the Dead and Halloween Storytelling
The nights are drawing in, and it’s tempting to spend more time indoors but come and enjoy Autumn outdoors at Martineau Gardens this October with a range of activities.
Lizzy Bean (course tutor) stoking the fire
Sat 21 October, Baking in an Earth Oven Course, Martineau Gardens 10am – 3pm Just in time for the bonfire season, come and learn how to bake outdoors on a wood-fired earth oven, in Martineau Gardens very own outdoor kitchen. Click here for more details and booking info. £40, advance booking essential.
Autumn Half-Term Family Fun, Martineau Gardens, 10am – 12noon on Tues 24 October and Thurs 26 October Come and have some autumn and Halloween themed fun this October half term. Ideal for finding out more about the wildlife at Martineau Gardens with plenty of fun and play along the way. Click here for more details and booking info, £5 per child, advance booking essential.
A celebratory altar will be created in the glass house
Sat 28 October, Day of the Dead Celebrations, Martineau Gardens
Join us for these special festivities. Members of the Mexican Community in the Midlands are running a ‘Day of the Dead’ activity here at Martineau Gardens to share the tradition with you. Visit the altar that will be set up at Martineau Gardens, keeping one of Mexico’s most ancient traditions alive. Children’s Sugar Skull 30 min workshops, £3, booking in advance essential. click here for more information
Tues 31 October, Halloween Story Night, Martineau Gardens 6 – 9pm with the Trad Arts Team A rare opportunity to enjoy Martineau Gardens at night, in the company of storytellers from the Traditional Arts Team. Click here for more details and booking info, £5 per adult, £2 per child, advance booking recommended.
Scarlet Elf Cap credit: A Curran
And of course Martineau Gardens is open everyday (except Sunday), from 10 and until 4pm – entry is free (unless there is a special event on).
Stay in touch with our news and events: Click here to join our News & Events mailing list – we’ll email you once a month with News from the Gardens.
For our privacy policy click here: Privacy.
Week 3: The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal
In just 17 days, we’ve raised half our target – this is TREMENDOUS! Please keep the momentum going: spread the word, encourage people to view our film and donate here: martineau-gardens.org.uk/2017/09/pavilion-refurbishment-appeal/
If you haven’t yet donated, you can post a cheque (payble to ‘Martineau Gardens’), telephone the Gardens to make a card payment or pop into see us with cash. It all counts.If you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further25p per £1 you donate.
Media Release: Issued Fri 29 September
In just 17 days, Martineau Gardens, the community garden and charity, in Edgbaston has reached the half-way point in its crowdfunding appeal to refurbish its Pavilion, with £19,518.75 donated to date. The Pavilion refurbishment work will transform a crumbling building into a warm, dry space that can be used by school groups, training courses and people holding celebrations.
Phase one of the refurbishment has already been completed (replacing the roof and external paintwork applied). The funds raised through the current appeal will be spent on knocking through walls to create more space, fitting a kitchen to better serve refreshments, insulating walls with sheep’s wool, fitting secondary glazing and a wood stove.
As well as simply providing a warm, dry roof overhead, the Pavilion refurbished, becomes a bigger, brighter space where the Gardens can extend its current Education Visits service by teaching more Birmingham children about nature. More businesses and community organisations can hold events and meetings and the public can hire the building for family parties and celebrations. This income will contribute towards keeping Martineau Gardens free to enter.
Caroline Hutton, Director of Martineau Gardens said:
“Care of the environment and the natural world, getting children in touch with nature, promoting positive mental health through gardening and all its pleasures, growing and eating healthy food is at the heart of what we do. Refurbishing the Pavilion will help to create an additional income that will enable Martineau Gardens to continue doing these things.”
The Gardens are inviting would-be supporters to view a one minute film which explains the Appeal and to donate, via this weblink: https://localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/
Week: 3 The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal
The Pavilion is at the hub of our Therapeutic Community Garden, it helps us to deliver the activities and events throughout the year that make Martineau Gardens such a special place to visit. It’s a multi-functional space for YOU to hire for your parties and family celebrations; a place for your organisations’ meetings and training courses and a place where Birmingham’s school children come for environmental education.
Like so many of our volunteers, visitors and visiting school children, we love the outdoors at Martineau Gardens, BUT … the Gardens needs somewhere warm and dry when the weather is not. The Pavilion provides a bit of indoors for all the times it’s not pleasant to be outside.
Our Pavilion was constructed pre-war – it’s intrinsic to the ‘feel’ and special character of Martineau Gardens and it’s a much loved building – but the current layout of the Pavilion is limiting its potential.
By knocking walls through (see above), the refurbished Pavilion creates a big, dry classroom space providing a better experience for local primary school children who come to the Gardens on environmental education visits. It will also extend the school visit season beyond the drier months.
The Pavilion is ideally located to faciliate educational environmental visits – five minutes stroll from the Pavilion door, is our SLINC status woodland, rich in biodiversity, with a range of habitats and wildlife to observe. Currently our Glasshouse doubles as a classroom, ideal for studying propogation in plants (pictured right above), but it’s too hot in summer and too cold in winter. The Pavilion will provide a warm, dry insulated space where a whole class can be accommodated whether it be for eating packed lunches or in between their outdoor-based field study work on a rainy day.
At weekends, in the warmer months, the Gardens are regularly booked by a host of returning customers, booking us for their celebrations (family gatherings, birthday parties and community events).
“Martineau Gardens is a great place for parties, but what about when it rains?”
By creating a bigger space, we plan to install a modern kitchen to better serve refreshments.
With space for more delegates, more community groups and businesses, (like regular bookers, ‘Thrive’) will be able to book the Gardens for meetings and training courses.
Refurbishment helps us to increase our income from venue hire to help keep the Gardens open and free for the people of Birmingham to visit.
Campaign Update
It’s Week 3 of our Crowdfunder, The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Appeal. With two weeks under our belt, we’ve raised nearly a quarter of our target. So please keep the momentum going: spread the word and share the donate page: localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/
If you haven’t yet donated, you can also give by posting a cheque made payable to ‘Martineau Gardens’, telephoning the Gardens to make a card payment or popping into see us with cash. It all counts, and if you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further 25p per £1 you donate.
Watch our film here:
Be social and share this:
Week: 2 The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Refurbishment Appeal
Refurbishing our Pavilion means Martineau Gardens can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet. The refurbishment will create a bigger space that’s warm and dry in winter, light and airy in summer.
Care of the environment and the natural world; getting children in touch with nature and the outdoors; gardening and all its pleasures; growing and eating healthy food – this is at the heart of what we do.
Warm, dry and watertight, the Pavilion will need less ongoing repair work. By cutting our energy usage, we’re protecting the wider environment as well.
The Next Steps:
Refurbishment will involve:
We stand for social equality, which is why we use social enterprise Jericho Construction (pictured above) for the refurbishment work. Spacious, water tight interiors means we can teach more children about nature, whatever the weather; more people can hire our Pavilion for celebrations and meetings creating an income that contributes towards keeping Martineau Gardens free to enter.
Campaign Update
It’s Week 2 of our Crowdfunder, The Martineau Gardens Pavilion Appeal: we’re delighted with the good start to the appeal. In our first 7 days, more than 14% of our target has been achieved. So please keep the momentum going: spread the word and share the donate page: localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion/
If you haven’t yet donated, you can also give by posting a cheque made payable to ‘Martineau Gardens’, telephoning the Gardens to make a card payment or popping into see us with cash. It all counts, and if you’re a UK tax payer, we can claim the Gift Aid making your gift worth a further 25p per £1 you donate.
Watch our film here:
Be social and share this:
Photocredit: Swaledale sheep – “Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC-BY-SA 3.0”
Join in with our Crowdfunding Appeal.
From 12 September to 12 October 2017 Martineau Gardens is raising money to refurbish the Pavilion. Can you share this page, help spread the word and make a donation to our localgiving donation page here: www.localgiving.org/appeal/martineaugardenspavilion
Refurbishing our Pavilion means Martineau Gardens can continue to be the place where people, plants and wildlife meet. We’ve already completed phase one – the next step is to create a bigger space that’s warm and dry in winter, light and airy in summer. Spacious, water tight interiors means we can teach more children about nature, whatever the weather; people like YOU can hire our Pavilion for parties and celebrations, businesses and community groups can hold meetings and events, creating an income that contributes towards keeping Martineau Gardens free to enter.
Click here for more details about the Refurbishment – find out what’s been achieved so far and what the next steps are.
Our campaign starts Tuesday 12 September, 2017.
The Pavilion in Spring
We have reached the next stage of the Pavilion refurbishment: the roof is being replaced and so, the Gardens will be closed on Saturday 5 and Sunday 6 August. We reopen on Monday 7 August.
To find out more about our refurbishment work of our hundred year old Pavilion, click here.