cofarm Cambridge, barnwell road, cambridge
CoFarm Cambridge is a company limited by guarantee (with company number 12268102) and a wholly-owned subsidiary of CoFarm Foundation, established by the Foundation to co-create and run Cambridge city’s first community farm with and for the community.
The farm is being developed off Barnwell Road, in Abbey, on 7-acres of privately-owned agricultural land in the Green Belt and right next to Coldhams Common - a very special green space in Cambridge.
Work to establish the farm followed an extensive community consultation and co-design process, conducted over the course of a year. The first phase of consultation, launched in March 2019, was to ask the local community whether they wanted a community farm for Cambridge and, if so, what it should look and feel like and how they would like to engage with it.
Following an overwhelmingly positive response from the community, the second phase of the consultation was to work with award-winning architects RH Partnership to translate the community’s ideas, dreams and aspirations for their farm into workable designs for the site. These were presented back to the community for their feedback in early March 2020, just before the coronavirus lock-down.
Full details of the public consultation process, including reports from both phases of community consultation and the Design Brief for Cambridge city’s first community farm, can all be found here.
Implementation of the community’s co-created farm design got underway at the end of May 2020, with the installation of rabbit-proof fencing around the core 2-acre organic market garden zone of the farm. All horticultural activity is led by CoFarm Cambridge’s brilliant Farm Manager, Pete Wrapson, supported by over 1,000 volunteers (so far) from the local community and local business community.
Peter Wrapson has worked with over 1,000 CoFarmers - and counting - to establish a thriving and productive market garden at CoFarm Cambridge.
The farm, now entering its fifth growing season, has donated over 25 tonnes of premium quality fresh fruit and vegetables worth over £100,000 to 8 community food hubs which were established across Cambridge to support people experiencing food insecurity, as a response to the coronavirus pandemic. We work very closely with Cambridge Sustainable Food Partnership, who coordinate the network of food hubs across the city. The short film below, shot during the pandemic, gives a flavour of this work.
Volunteers sort through the harvest, in preparation for donating it to local community food hubs. CoFarm Cambridge, August 2020.
Volunteer co-farmer Chermayne harvesting French beans at CoFarm Cambridge. CoFarm Cambridge, August 2020.
Volunteer co-farmer Alex watering the leeks at the community farm. CoFarm Cambridge, August 2020.
Volunteer co-farmers at CoFarm Cambridge have helped with everything from sowing seeds to tackling thistles (as in this image) on the community farm. CoFarm Cambridge, August 2020.
volunteer at cofarm cambridge
To find out more about volunteering at CoFarm Cambridge, and to book a co-farming session with us, please visit the booking page.
This Google Earth 3D footage shows a fly around of our field off Barnwell Road, Abbey, Cambridge before the community started transforming the site into a thriving community farm. With thanks to Dave Badger for creating the file and Google Earth for the images.
