Funding & Support

None of this was paid for out of plot rents. The shed, the picnic bench and the pond going in this year came from grants, donations and people giving up a Saturday, and some of it from members putting their own money in. That is how a site this size gets anything done, and it is why this page exists.

Below is what has been paid for, what we would like to do next, and how it fits with what Dartmoor National Park is trying to achieve. If you fund community projects on the moor, or you are local and would rather give twenty pounds than dig, the contact page reaches the committee.

How our aims line up with the Vision for Dartmoor

The Vision for Dartmoor was updated through public consultation and work with partners across 2025 and 2026. It sets a shared direction to 2045: a thriving and resilient landscape of moors and valleys where nature, farming, communities and heritage all flourish, and where everyone is welcome to live, work or visit. It is delivered through the Partnership Plan, which works in five year cycles across seven themes. The current plan runs to 2026 and its replacement is being drafted now, for adoption in January 2027.

We should be plain about the relationship, because it is easy to imply more than is true. We are not a delivery partner of the National Park Authority. We are not funded by it, we are not named in the Partnership Plan, and nothing here is endorsed by anyone but our own committee. We are a village association that happens to sit inside the National Park, and we have read the Vision and recognise it. That is the whole of the connection.

What we have done is use its framework to think with. Thirteen plots are a small thing to set beside a vision for a whole National Park, and we are not going to pretend a dahlia bed moves a national target. But the themes below are a fair way of describing what we are actually trying to do, and using the same words seemed more useful than inventing our own.

So: where our aims point the same way as the plan's, and where they do not.

Better for Nature and Natural Beauty

The plan wants habitats protected, regenerated and reconnected, and wildlife more abundant across a mosaic of habitats. What we have is one field's worth, and it is about to get more interesting. A pond is going in. Hedgehog houses are built and sited. Alongside those, a dahlia bed planted for pollinators, compost and manure bays back in use, and plots of varied planting where there was rough ground going over to nettles and dock. It is a stepping stone between gardens rather than a habitat in its own right, and we would describe it that way in an application.

There is also a catchment argument, which is stronger than it looks. North Bovey sits in the headwaters of the Bovey, the largest tributary of the Teign and a river with recognised problems. Water held on site rather than run off it, green waste composted rather than carted away, and a cautious approach to chemicals are all small contributions at catchment scale. The Park's own natural flood management work names the Bovey as a priority catchment, so this is the association's language, not a stretch.

Better for People

The plan wants people of all backgrounds and ages able to reach the National Park and benefit from it, taking part in activities that support their health and wellbeing. This is our strongest claim. The allotments are a walkable, no-cost-to-visit, low-commitment way for people in the village to spend time outdoors in company, including people who could not manage a whole plot and people who would not join a club.

Better for Business and Communities

The plan wants communities thriving and engaged in caring for the National Park. Generations of allotments on church ground, brought back by the village itself rather than by an agency, is a recognisable version of that at parish scale. Nobody asked us to do it and nobody is paying for it, which is either the weakness of the claim or the point of it, depending on who is reading.

Better for Cultural Heritage

The plan wants traditional skills recognised, supported and passed on. Allotments have been worked on this ground for generations, on land the church has held for far longer. The knowledge moving around the site, seed saving, potato timings, compost, bees, is exactly the kind that is only ever passed hand to hand.

A Better Response to Climate Change

Modest and honest. Composting green waste on site rather than carting it away, capturing rainwater rather than drawing mains, and food grown a few hundred metres from where it is eaten. We would not build an application on this theme, but it is true.

Better for Farming and Forestry

Not us. A field of vegetable plots is not a farming or forestry contribution and we would not pretend otherwise.

Funding activity

That is the thinking. This is the ledger: what the money has already done on the ground, and what we would point the next lot of it at.

Procured

What to buy first was not the committee's decision on its own. We asked plot holders what they wanted. We also asked people who do not have a plot two questions: whether anything would tempt them to take one, and what single thing would make the allotments more approachable. Everything below is us working through those answers, which means people who have never held a plot have still had a hand in what is on the site.

  1. Timber for raised beds. The clearest way to widen the range of plot sizes, and in time the thing that could let somebody start with a single bed rather than a whole plot. The three built so far are worked together as one plot. What they change today is the height of the work, which puts the site within reach of people who cannot dig at floor level. Funding paid for the wood, alongside a contribution from the plot holder they were built for. Why Access came first. A bed at working height is the difference between growing something and not, for anyone who cannot kneel or dig at ground level. Size is the other half of it, because the most common answer from people without a plot was that a whole plot is too much to take on, and beds are the route to offering something smaller.
  2. The shed. Dry storage on a site that had none, and the obvious home for shared tools when there are shared tools to share. Why Asked what one thing they would need if they did take a plot, more than one person said somewhere to keep tools. Carting a spade up from home, or buying a full set before you have grown anything, is a real barrier and a dull one to be stopped by.
  3. Communal picnic bench. Bought and in place, and it changed how people use the site more than any tool has. The perfect place for tea and a conversation. Why Asked what would make the allotments more approachable, people wanted somewhere to sit. It means you can come up for half an hour without working, which is how most people end up staying.

Proposed

What we are raising for next, in rough order of how much difference it would make. Each one carries the step it has reached in the eco-purchasing flow below.

  1. Shelter. Somewhere to sit out of the weather. The picnic bench works for a handful of months; a shelter over it would extend that to most of the year. Eco-purchasing, step 1
  2. Plumbing and guttering for the water butts. Every butt needs checking: that it sits where the run off actually goes, that the guttering above it is sound, that the piping holds and that the tap connectors still work. Some of that is repair and some is replacement, and we will not know the split until the review is done. It is at step one because somebody local may be able to do the work, and if not we will cost it. Eco-purchasing, step 1
  3. Compost bays. The pallets are up and the bays want posts to secure them. This is the cheapest useful thing on the list by a distance and mostly wants a volunteer session rather than money. Eco-purchasing, step 1
  4. Shared tools. So that taking on an overgrown plot does not mean buying your way in first. Eco-purchasing, step 1
  5. Wildlife features, beyond what is already in hand. The hedgehog houses are up and the pond is going in. What comes after those, pollinator planting and anything meadow-shaped, has not been agreed, so it stays a possibility rather than a plan. Eco-purchasing, step 1

Work on the site itself, rather than things bought for it, is on the projects page.

Eco-Purchasing Principles

Nothing gets bought because somebody fancied it. Every proposed purchase runs down the same short flow, and most of the good outcomes are the ones that stop before any money moves.

  1. Step 1

    Can we source this locally?

    Yes Great, crack on. End
    No On to the next question.

  2. Step 2

    Is this something we would want to spend money on?

    Yes Carry out a value assessment.
    No Stop here. End

  3. Step 3

    Value assessment; does the approximate cost justify the proposed solution?

    Yes Carry out a purchasing triage.
    No Stop here. End

  4. Step 4

    Purchasing triage

    • Sourcing preferred from suppliers that recognise community initiatives
    • Ask suppliers to ensure that our choice of item is appropriate for the projected usage
    • Requesting discounted or end of line stock for increasing cost/value

  5. Step 5

    Findings submitted to committee for sign-off

    Nobody on their own signs off a purchase. What comes back from the triage goes to the committee, and the committee decides.

How we are run

North Bovey Allotments Association is a constituted community group with its own committee and its own bank account. The committee is drawn from the village and from the Parochial Church Council, and includes a chair, a secretary, a treasurer and a safeguarding lead. Accounts are presented to members annually.

The land belongs to St John's, so we answer to the Parochial Church Council as well as to our own members. In practice that means two sets of eyes on anything we spend, which is more scrutiny than a site this size strictly needs and not a bad thing.

It runs both ways. The church gives the allotments ground, continuity and a century or more of stewardship behind them. The allotments give the church a field full of people who are not congregation, using its land on an ordinary Tuesday. Neither of us is doing the other a favour. It is the same arrangement the village has always had with St John's, pointed at a different thing.

Between the constitution, the committee and the bank account, there is no size of grant we are barred from applying for.

On insurance, the position is that ordinary gardening on this site is expected to fall under the church's public liability cover, and that anything requiring a licensed tool, a chainsaw being the obvious one, would not. We are seeking formal confirmation of where the line sits.

Committee minutes and other papers are on the documents page.

Supporting us

If you fund community projects on Dartmoor, or you are simply local and would rather give twenty pounds than dig, the contact page will reach the committee. If you have a machine, a trailer, a spare morning or a skill, that is worth more than the twenty pounds.

Contact