The partners in the project are Leatside Surgery and the Faculty of Health, Education and Society at Plymouth University and supported by School Farm, Dartington. South Hams District Council has licensed to the Trust, as lead organisation for Gardening for Health, a small site at The Lamb in Totnes as the information/demonstration hub for the project.

For a background review and summary of the pilot project in Year One or Year Two, you can read The Lamb Reports for both 2011 and 2012 online. The five year project overview report is also available for 2015.

The Lamb Site

The Lamb site (shown as The Lamb Garden on the map, left) used to be part of the old sheep market in Totnes. Totnes Trust has permission to use the former auctioneer’s office, a Grade II listed building, as its office (the Hub), where garden equipment is stored and information about the courses and healthy living is available. The neglected open space has been transformed, with raised beds for growing vegetables and herbs, a small fruit growing ‘forest garden’ with new benches, a pergola and lawn, while retaining the listed paving. Courses are run by members of School Farm at Dartington Hall for those referred by the doctors at Leatside and other surgeries and for members of the community.

The Lamb Garden was opened on 18 February 2011 by Dr Sarah Wollaston, MP for Totnes, attended by Totnes Mayor, Cllr Tony Whitty. Dr Wollaston planted a Totnes variety of apple, ‘Sherry Surprise’, with a silver-plated spade, used to dig the first turf of the Totnes railway line in the 19th century, loaned by the Totnes Museum under the watchful eye of the ‘Guardian of the Spade’, Cllr Pruw Boswell.