01
Plots before programmes
We let plots. That is the work. Anything else we do — a tea on a Saturday, a hedge-laying day, a winter newsletter — exists only because it helps the plots, or the people on them.
Mansfield · since 1916
A hundred years of sitting at the gate of a Mansfield allotment, listening first.
We are twelve unpaid trustees, one small set of fields, and a charity scheme sealed on the 23rd of May 1916. We let plots in the ancient parish of Mansfield to anyone who will work them, and we have done so quietly, season after season, for more than a hundred years.
Year to 31 March 2025
£83,672
Total income last year, against £56,390 of expenditure. Every figure independently examined and filed with the Charity Commission. Read the annual reports →
A quiet promise
"We have only ever set out to do one thing well. Let plots, on fair terms, to the people of this parish."
— John Carter, Chair
What we hold to
Four habits, kept since the first scheme was sealed.
Our charitable objects are narrow on purpose. The trust exists to provide allotments for the labouring poor of the ancient parish of Mansfield. The values below are how we go about it.
02
Fair rents, plainly written
Annual plot rents are set by the trustees in open meeting each February. We publish the figures, we publish the reasoning, and the lowest band has not risen in real terms since 2014.
03
Unpaid, by design
No trustee takes payment. No member of staff is on the payroll. Every pound that arrives at the trust pays for water, hedge, fence, manure, or the parish-hall room where we meet.
04
The parish, not the postcode
Our area of benefit is the ancient parish of Mansfield as it stood in 1916. We try to keep that boundary visible — not as a fence, but as a promise to the place that brought us into being.
Open campaign · Spring 2026
The Carr Bank Standpipe Fund — water on every path by 2027.
For thirty years the western half of our Carr Bank site has been served by a single hand-pumped well and a long unrolling of hosepipe. We are raising £8,000 to install three new mains standpipes, one for every block of plots, so no tenant walks more than fifty paces for a watering-can.
For the benefit of all 84 plot-holders at Carr Bank — and for the schools, foodbanks and neighbours who will draw on those taps in turn.
Our programmes
Six small undertakings that grow out of one quiet purpose.
Read each in full on the programmes page. Every one is anchored to the same area of benefit and the same scheme of 1916.
01 · Tenancies
Plot Tenancies
136 plots let across two sites in the parish. Annual rents from £18, set by trustees in open meeting. A waiting list, kept by hand on lined paper, that turns over about once a season.
Read more
02 · Sharing
The Common Plot
One plot at Carr Bank is given over each year to produce for the Beacon Project foodbank in town. In 2025 our volunteers harvested 612 kg of vegetables from it.
Read more
03 · Teaching
Schools & Sowing
Six Mansfield primary schools visit the site each spring for a sowing morning. Last year 184 children put seeds in soil — the largest cohort since the programme began in 2019.
Read more
04 · Sharing tools
The Tool Library
A working shed of 42 hand tools, free to borrow for any tenant. Run by Stuart and an occasional Saturday workshop on sharpening, handle-fitting, and tool care.
Read more
05 · Habitat
Hedgerow & Habitat
Two laying days a winter on the long western boundary, with the Sherwood Forest Trust as our quiet teacher. 240 metres of hedge re-laid since 2021, and a count of 17 new bird species ringed.
Read more
06 · Infrastructure
Water & Infrastructure
Standpipes, rainwater tanks, slate-roofed sheds, paths and gates. The unglamorous half of an allotment trust, and the half that we spend the most pounds on each year.
Read morePlot rents collected · 2019–2025
The income side of a small charity, in seven years of plain bars.
Most of our income arrives in £18, £24, and £32 envelopes from plot rents. Donations, the show, and a single annual building-society interest payment make up the rest. Hover at your leisure; the figures are taken straight from the Charity Commission filings.
Open dates 2026
Three things to put in the diary, all of them quiet and outdoors.
Sat
11
Jul 2026
Open Afternoon at Carr Bank
Carr Bank Site · 14.00–16.30
Tea, cake and a slow walk around the plots. New tenants meet existing ones; trustees take questions on the path.
Sat
12
Sep 2026
Autumn Show 2026
Westgate Parish Hall · 13.00–17.00
Largest marrow, longest runner bean, six uniform tomatoes, and a small brass band. Entries from the parish only.
Sat
17
Jan 2026
Winter Hedge-Laying Day
Carr Bank Western Boundary · 09.30–15.00
Bring waterproofs and stout boots. Tea and bacon rolls at 11.00. No experience needed; mallets provided.
Latest dispatches
Three stories from the path this season.
The water came back to Carr Bank.
On a bright Saturday in April, the first of three new standpipes was turned on. A small story about copper, concrete and a quiet round of applause.
A hundred years of tenancies, in one ledger.
Sitting in the parish-hall archive with the 1924 ledger, we found the entry for the very first plot let under the new scheme — and the rent it carried.
The Common Plot feeds the foodbank.
A summary of the 2025 season at our shared plot: 612 kg of fresh produce, 34 weekly deliveries to the Beacon Project, and a quiet thank-you note we keep on the office wall.