The sun came out for Okehampton residents as they celebrated the completion of a four-year renovation of one of the Castle Rd allotments which are run by Okehampton United Charities.

Residents recently gathered together in the newly-refurbished allotment to celebrate the day with town councillor Christine Marsh cutting the ribbon and officially declaring the allotment complete.

Alongside a celebratory picnic, the day also included the planting of a new apple tree, a Red Windsor variety, in honour of the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee year.

Cllr Marsh said: ‘It was lovely and they had done a really good job. I planted the apple tree and I thought the name Red Windsor was very appropriate.’

Alongside the plots, the allotment now includes a communal space, and a meeting room. The new set of allotments also includes a watering system which pumps water straight from the river and a communal kitchen in the meeting room.

Okehampton resident John Mills (bottom right), who helped construct the new plant beds, said: ‘We started this project four years ago and Okehampton United Charities gave us money to rebuild the garden. The repair of the garden wall which is 55 metres long took a year. We completed that with the help of another allotment owner. He has been wonderful and helped throughout the project.

‘I planted all the grass seeds and got the garden ready for the flower beds. We had plans for the shed which was built with gifted materials that were left on building sites that no one wanted to use and we were gifted the roof.’

Photos by Clare Barton