The Farmers Mart Feb-Mar 2020 - Issue 67 | Page 12

12 HEADINGLEY FARMERS MARKET
FEB/MAR 2020 • farmers-mart.co.uk
Ga
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S6
, Nort
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g le
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h Lane, Hea
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ver
Satu y 2nd
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the m ay of
on
9am th
12.30 –
pm
Over 20 stalls with high quality
food direct from local producers
Regular stalls providing organic meat, organic vegetables, fish, bread, free range eggs,
home baking, gluten free produce, cheeses, smoked foods, coffee, apple juice, pies,
honey, soups and sauces. Italian, Asian and Greek produce.
INNER CITY AND
COMMUNITY
REGENERATION
A Yorkshire Success Story
I recently met up with Gill Redfearn who is
one of the founders, and fourteen years on,
one of the key drivers of this remarkable
urban regeneration and success story.
Many guest stalls – e.g. bagels, green shoots, strawberries, chocolate, compost, flowers.
BACK in 2006, a small group of residents
Headingley Farmers’ Market was set up in 2007 by Headingley Development Trust, a social enterprise.
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S6
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HEADINGLEY
FARMERS’
MARKET
NATURAL
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Kid es
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BENNETT ROAD
HEADINGLEY
ENTERPRISE AND
ARTS CENTRE (HEART)
Visit the
HDT stall t
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to find o l
a
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abo
s
event
Live
Music
Support
local
rs
produce
www.headingleyfarmersmarket.com
HeadingleyMkt
Dates in 2020
11 January
8 February
14 March
11 April
9 May
13 June
11 July
8 August
12 September
10 October
14 November
12 December
Dates in 2021
9 January
13 February
13 March
10 April
8 May
12 June.
from Headingley Leeds decided to
start Headingley Farmers’ Market. This
came from an idea from the Headingley
Development Trust. The reason for the
initial idea came from the fact that at that
time many residents had left the area,
many properties were becoming HMO,s
and many of the fresh food shops had
disappeared, along with a number of
the independents. Slowly but surely a
community was disappearing, to leave a
large cricket ground, a few bars and pubs
and precious little else. The community
was shrinking, people didn’t know each
other any more. It was becoming less
and less attractive to families. The heart
of Headingley was disappearing and
something had to be done.
So this remarkable group of residents,
of which Gill was one, came up with the
idea of starting a Farmers Market. The
HDT only began in 2005, so regeneration
was only just starting.
The Rose Garden area was an ideal
site, being semi-circular and on a corner.
They originally approached and sourced
the stalls, starting with only ten. They
visited other market organisers e.g Otley
and looked on websites to see which
producers they fancied/needed so they
had a broad and rounded offer. The main
criteria was that the producer had to
sell his/her own produce [ ie no middle
men] and that they were local ie within 30
miles of Headingley - though they made
an exception for fish! The team worked
hard to publicise the market via flyers,
newspaper articles and then with social