We are open as usual the May Bank Holiday
Our Story
Our Founding
Our Founding
Our Founding
Built by local people in 1978, the farm has remained open for nearly five decades because communities still need places where people can turn up, contribute, and feel part of something bigger than themselves.
Our Growth
Our Founding
Our Founding
Stonebridge City Farm has grown from a community response to derelict land into a significant piece of social infrastructure in St Ann’s. What began as a local city farm now supports thousands of visitors, volunteers, schools, and residents each year, combining animals, green space, practical activity, and community connection within an accessible, inclusive environment.
Our Impact
Our Founding
Our Impact
We provide trusted, low-barrier community space in an area facing significant inequality and isolation. Through volunteering, animals, gardens, food, education, and shared activity, it supports wellbeing, confidence, social connection, and practical skills. Its impact comes from being consistent, accessible, and relational, allowing people to participate without judgement or formal thresholds.
Why we exist
Stonebridge City Farm has been part of St Ann’s, Nottingham, since 1978. It was created during a period of major change following slum clearance and redevelopment across the area when local people pushed for something different. Rather than leaving the land derelict, residents, volunteers, and supporters came together to create a place that would remain open, accessible, and rooted in the neighbourhood.
That history still shapes how the farm operates today. It is part of the area’s social infrastructure, built and sustained through community effort, public support, and a shared belief that people should be able to access green space, animals, practical learning, and social connection in the middle of the city.
The need for that has not disappeared. St Ann’s continues to experience significant inequality, isolation, and limited access to opportunity. Many formal services are built around thresholds, time limits, or fixed outcomes, which can exclude people whose lives are shaped by trauma, poor health, caring responsibilities, or poverty. Stonebridge provides something different: a consistent, low-barrier environment where people can turn up, build trust over time, develop confidence and skills, and take part in community life without needing to meet a threshold first.
People who have been marginalised regain confidence, purpose, and a sense of belonging. Children experience animals, food growing, and outdoor learning without leaving the city. Local residents gain access to green space that is genuinely public and welcoming. Over time, the farm functions as social infrastructure: a place that quietly holds communities together rather than simply a visitor attraction.
People are more likely to show up consistently, take responsibility, and build competence over time. Retention improves. Incidents reduce. Trust grows. The quality of contribution rises because participation is chosen rather than coerced. The alternative is predictable: churn, disengagement, and reinforcing the belief that “I can’t manage” or “I don’t belong here”.
This model depends on skilled staff, consistent safeguarding, supervision, training, and the daily care of animals, land, and facilities. Free access is a deliberate choice, but it is not cost-free. It only works because individuals, funders, and partners choose to underwrite the real costs of keeping a safe, inclusive space open to everyone.
The history of Stonebridge City Farm & Gardens
From humble beginnings
In the early 1970s, this was allotment space, used and tended by local people. As part of wider redevelopment across St Ann’s, the land was cleared of slum housing to make way for a new estate and a proposed school. The school was never built.
Instead, local conversations began to shift the purpose of the site. The idea of a city farm emerged, shaped by people who wanted something practical, shared and rooted in everyday life. After sustained discussion with the council, a lease was agreed in August 1978. The first permanent structure, the barn, was put up in May 1980. What exists now grew from that moment.
Stonebridge City Farm grew out of what people here could see was missing, and it has endured because that need is still present.
Let the planning begin!
The site wasn’t exactly ready-made farmland – it was mostly rubble. Volunteers hauled in soil from the Colwick Sugar Beet Factory, spread it by hand, and bit by bit transformed the ground into a living, growing space. The original plan was for education and community involvement: shared flower beds, veggie patches, and herb gardens where everyone – young and old – could get stuck in.
Of course, things haven’t always been smooth sailing. In 1981, the County Council threatened to sell off the land – but local residents fought back with a petition, and the farm survived.
Creating Community
Despite the original focus of the farm being on plants and vegetables, the number of animals quickly started to grow. By the summer of 1982 the animal numbers had increased to 5 goats, 2 lambs, 22 ducks, 40 rabbits and 60 chickens! In 1983, disaster struck when the barn burnt down, destroying the van and a year’s supply of straw. But once again, volunteers rallied and repaired the barn for a fraction of the cost.
People power
Over the years, the farm has kept adapting. In 1992, the layout was redesigned with the north-south footpath, making it easier for the community to connect with us, and the community café was born. In 2009, plans for an access road threatened to cut right through the site, but thanks to another petition and local media coverage, the farm was protected.
A place for volunteers
Today the farm continues to grow for the benefit of the local and wider communities. We care for a whole host of animals, from larger animals, such as cows, to small rabbits and birds. We welcome over 100,000 visitors every year, along with over 1,500 schoolchildren, and even host Community Impact Days for local organisations.
Behind the scenes, a small team of staff and a wonderful 130+ volunteers each week keep the farm alive. Many of our volunteers face challenges such as learning difficulties, mental health issues, or other disadvantages, and the farm gives them a safe, supportive space to learn new skills and build confidence.