A brief history of the garden:

Broadway Community Gardens is about an acre of land, tucked between Oakfield Road, Old Nurseries and Broadway itself. An allotment site during and after the Second World War, it fell into disuse in the 1970s and became a piece of scrubland, used only for fly-tipping and by local teenagers. Yet its underuse by humans led to a vibrant community of birds, insects and mammals making it their home.

The threat of a future housing development hung over it, and in 2019 a group of local residents came together to save it for both the local wildlife and the local community - and the Broadway Community Garden Association was born. They set about demonstrating that it could be a valuable community asset, and despite the fact that they had no formal permission started to tend the land, and sow the seeds for a future community garden.

The site was owned by Mendip District Council, so The Association requested that Frome Town Council purchase it on behalf of the community. In November 2022 Frome Town Councillors voted to do just that, and on the understanding that it would not be developed and would become a community garden for all of Frome to enjoy. The site will continue to managed by the community, and later this year it will be transferred to SOS Frome to hold in trust for the future.

Broadway Community Gardens has the potential to be so much, including:

• A key part of building Frome’s food resilience in the face of increasing food insecurity. 

• A growing and composting hub and learning centre with classes and workshops on how to grow food and create compost as a community.

• A quiet sanctuary for people to come and spend time in nature, and a space for mental health and wellbeing groups to meet. 

• A site for forest and other schools to use for educational purposes. 

• A wildlife and biodiversity haven, and part of a wildlife corridor in town.