Urban Farm

The first phase of the Northern Roots Urban Farm was established in 2023, with the support of local young people, volunteers and businesses, and funding from the Halpin Trust.  We built two 18 metre polytunnels, created outdoor growing beds using the no-dig method, planted hedgerows and trees, held our first produce sales, and partnered with Hive5 Manchester, who now manage the Northern Roots apiary.

In early 2024 we started work on the second phase of the Urban Farm, expanding it by a further four acres on the field directly in front of the future Visitor Centre. This will enable Northern Roots to showcase urban and regenerative farming techniques with a focus on providing healthy, locally grown food.

As well as growing a wide range of vegetables and salads, we’ll plant native fruit and nut trees, flowers for cutting, dye and apothecary gardens, grow wheat, and plants for foraging. Chickens will be kept to help control pests and weeds, fertilize the soil, and produce eggs, and the current apiary will be expanded to include more hives.

We’ll continue to grow our volunteering programme and will recruit for more Urban Farm Growers, including trainees and apprentices, as we expand.

Over time the Urban Farm aims to:

• Provide healthy food, produced in 10 acres of market garden with additional livestock, agroforestry, orchards, aquaculture, beekeeping, nurseries, horticulture and foraging
• Showcase productive urban farming at a scale unseen in the UK
• Create genuine “Made in Oldham” products, with profits ploughed back into land and communities
• Enable people to access training, education, jobs, volunteering and business opportunities
• Model a landscape approach, intertwining conservation and production.
• Support small local enterprises, together expanding the supply of healthy and locally grown food, creating jobs, and making Oldham more entrepreneurial and resilient.