The growth of the UK’s city farming and community gardening movement, from the 1960s to the modern day, has been recorded as part of an oral history project for FCFCG. It is the first time the development of the movement has been documented in this way.

The project was funded by an award of £34,500 made by the Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) under the Your Heritage scheme. And it is hoped the work will inspire even more local people to become involved in community farming and gardening.

Since the early days in the 1960s, when a few groups of local people came together to convert patches of derelict land for gardening, there are now more than 120 city farms and school farms, nearly 1,000 community gardens and a growing number of community-managed allotments. They help to empower people of all ages and backgrounds to build better communities, often in deprived areas.

During the course of the project, 20 witness seminars were held around the UK, when stalwarts from long-established city farms and community gardens recalled their experiences, both the highs and the lows, and reflected on the benefits that have been created for local people. A number of one-to-one interviews were held, particularly in South West England, while copies of documents and photographs charting the movement's history have been collected to create an archive.

As part of the project, FCFCG has created a toolkit to help local community groups document their own history. To find out more about this resource, see the information below.