Official opening for Inverurie Men's Shed community allotment site
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A little light rain shower on Saturday morning didn't dampen the spirits of all those gathered at the Inverurie and District Men's Shed community allotments, in fact it provided a welcome watering for the flourishing greenery which has been the handiwork of local residents.
The coming together was organised to mark the formal opening of the site by well known local George Ross.
Chairman of the Men’s Shed Archie Peebles welcomed everyone and paid thanks to the many and various people who have supported the project by way of contributing materials, experience and indeed time to ensure its creation.
He said: "Many people have worked hard during the lockdown to create this site and our thanks goes to George Ross, on whose land this site has been created.
"A great many members have offered their time and expertise as well as local businesses and organisations including Aberdeenshire Council who have also supported this effort with aid to create the car park on site.
"We were able to re-use our existing poly-tunnel frame from our old site at Harlaw, but as many will remember, this was subject to repeated incidents of vandalism, so it has been newly recovered.
He then introduced George Ross who donated the land for the allotments to perform the official opening.
George explained how he came about to own the ground and explained how pleased he was to be able to contribute to the formation of the allotments, before finally cutting the ribbon to declare the Allotments Open.
Mr Ross said: "When we moved from Premnay to Inverurie back in 1974 I had to sell two of our horses and a couple of years later we looked to getting new ones and sought out a piece of land locally so that we could have them back
"The field was being sold by the owners of the Banks of Ury at the time, but in the end it was used to house cattle for many years instead.
"I began to wonder about an alternative use and did think about allotments, and one night at Rotary it was reported that the Men's Shed were looking for a new site and thanks to the work of the late Alistair Smith, the project was taken forward.
"Things had to be done properly and we decided on a 15 year lease."
He revealed however: "I am in the process of forming a charitable foundation so the title of this field will go to the foundation and it will be here for the use of the allotments for many years to come.
"Work began here in July last year and the difference even between March and June this year has been fantastic.
"It is a real meeting place for both young and old, which was always Alistair's dream."
Visitors were encouraged to look around the allotments which include the apple trees recently planted by the Rotary Club in memory of former members and which will form a new orchard.
The Men’s Shed are currently putting together an order for even more fruit trees to form a specific community orchard.
Also appearing on the day was he fully restored Ferguson tractor called Elvis, owned by Graeme Shepherd that was used in the recent site handover ceremony and which was put to unusual use to collect the heated sausage rolls as part of a buffet lunch supplied by J G Ross Bakers.
The site now houses a total of 40 allotments including a polytunnel growing area.
All of these have been allocated to local people, who have now through their hard work, created their own growing areas in which a wide variety of flowers and vegetables can be seen.
A summer house, has been recycled and relocated from it's old home at Harlaw Centre.
The allotment holders on Old Port Road include several family groups, all regularly enjoying their horticultural pastime and whose youngsters were very keen to tell of their growing exploits.
