Dig for victory garden

As part of the Garden Connections project we are developing a range of exhibition gardens within the grounds of the school, each offering unique learning opportunities within the curriculum and new connections to community. One of these is a World War Two 'dig for victory' garden.

With recent, generous offers of help from local volunteers, this first garden is now being built. We are turning an underused, fenced area into a working example of a highly productive early 1940s family garden, supplying vegetables, fruits and eggs to combat wartime food shortages.

The garden will provide an opportunity for pupils to have hands-on experience of gardening methods, within a heritage context. The open fronted shelter in the space will become one of our classification stations and a side of the shed that sits by the entrance to the garden will be used as an exhibition space, where we will be working with pupils to create display boards that detail personal accounts of individual community members' wartime experiences at home.

We would also hugely appreciate any help you can give us in sourcing artefacts from this period, to add authenticity to the space. This is an exciting opportunity for pupils to become the curators of an aspect of their community cultural heritage.