NewBridge Gallery is now closed until Friday 16 October.
You can join us on 5 September and 3 October for Saturday Social. You can still shop NewBridge Books throughout the weekdays!
Join us for a series of practical skill-sharing workshops with queer gardening club TopSoil. Together we will be learning new skills to care for our communal allotment, from planting to composting to caring for our fruit trees and seed saving.
TopSoil queer gardening club has gathered together on Friday mornings over the past two years, emboldened by the ethos that growing and gardening is a radical political act of resistance. More information about TopSoil is here.
These skill-sharing sessions respond to the interests of TopSoil members, the specificities of the TopSoil allotment, and the skills needed to maintain our plot well and with care for the planet.
If you have not been to TopSoil before and are interested in coming along please get in touch with us via admin@thenewbridgeproject.com
Friday 7 November | 10.30am–1.30pm
Permaculture is all about conscious design. In this workshop we will apply some of the principles of permaculture to our food growing spaces to produce nutrition and abundance, heal the land and learn about how we can work with seasonal cycles to produce abundance all year round.
In this workshop we will be looking at permaculture as a way of designing our lives in harmony with nature.
We will be diving into some of the key principles of permaculture and in particular how this can be applied to food growing.
We will be looking at what we can do at different times of year to help restore the land and grow food, with an emphasis on preparing sites for the winter.
Friday 14 November | 10.30am–1.30pm
Join us this autumn to learn more about composting, compost recipes, and get involved in building compost bays for the TopSoil allotment.
Composting is a rich biological and alchemical process of building soil. It may seem as if it arrives from thin air but compost doesn’t make itself, it takes the right ingredients, care and time to make that beautiful mulchy material. At this time of year leaves are in abundance, a wonderful and underrated ingredient for compost making. Come together to build a compost system for the TopSoil allotment.
Friday 5 December | 10.30am–1.30pm
This workshop will explore some of the basics of fruit tree pruning with an emphasis on learning from, and imagining the energy of, the tree and their synergy with the soil and sky. It aims to open up the practice of pruning as a development in our relationship to the tree and our ecosystem.
The workshop will begin with a close observation of the tree or trees, how they are growing and have been responding to their environment, imagining what they may do in the future. We will work on a small amount of theory about the aims of pruning and the basic techniques and tools, then centre our actions with awareness of our own desires and how the trees may respond.
Gently, in pairs or threes, we will create a plan which links us to the tree - what would we change? How will they change in response? Shall we change together right now or over a few years?
We will use tools to start a process which might last a lifetime. We will use some collective reflection techniques to explore the changes and constants that have occurred and may occur, and where we might go from here.
Friday 6 March | 10.30am–1.30pm
We’ll begin our workshop looking at the history of seed production and the shift from home-grown to corporatised and capitalised seed markets. We’ll look at how this affects our own access to seed and how it might continue to impact in the future, and the relevance of seed to our food security.
Taking control of the tools, skills and resources we have available to us, we’ll embark on a practical seed sowing activity, growing plants that will be harvested to produce seeds for the coming year. We’ll touch on aspects of hope, of abundance, and the safety and security of beginning to meet our future food needs.
Please bring an open mind, searching questions, gardening gloves and weather-appropriate clothing and footwear. There may be seeds and seedlings to take home: please bring a box or plastic tub, and/or a carrier/ziplock bag to do so more easily.
Winter asks us to slow down and prepare for the growing months ahead. In this quieter moment of the year, join us to learn together and from each other how to clean, sharpen and oil our tools.
We will be learning how to sharpen one of the most useful tools on a gardener’s hip belt - Secateurs.
We will be sharpening the TopSoil garden club’s secateurs but you are welcome to bring your own too.
Please bring paper and pen if you like to take notes.
Please wear outdoor and water proof clothing and boots.
We will supply all equipment needed but you are welcome to bring your own pruning equipment (secateurs, loppers, gardening knives and pruning saws) providing they are sharp and in good condition, and your own PPE (gloves, goggles) if you prefer.
Catherine Howell (she/her) is a co-director and founder of a ‘plot to plate’ community interest company in Teesside, runs the Middlesbrough Farmstart programme and has a background in helping people from diverse and challenged communities create gardens in urban spaces. She coordinates The Gaia Foundation Seed Sovereignty programme in the North of England supporting amateur and professional growers to grow more open pollinated seed for thriving, diverse and resilient food production. Catherine is particularly interested in local and heritage varieties and celebrating the stories that sit behind them.
Claire Turner is a herbalist and veganic gardener with a background in community food growing. Claire created Ahimsa Apothecary Herbals to support people with their health and wellbeing through medicinal plants, and has a passion for growing and wild harvesting as many of these plants as possible. Claire believes in the power of communicating with plants in healing ourselves and our connection to the land.
Katy Sillem (she/they) is a human who is fascinated by trees, the way they grow and how they participate in the ecosystem. They have a strong desire to “train” and change fruit tree growth for some reason – it’s possible they are motivated by the importance of securing de-centralised food production in urban contexts, but it’s likely something else too, they are up for exploring this. Their pruning skills are mainly self taught over the past 7 years through work in community gardens and orchards in South East London and Central West Newcastle.
Than Gunabalasingham is a freelance horticultural educator. His work focuses on providing training in organic food growing, orcharding and forest gardening that is rooted in food system change and community resilience. He runs Nourish the Wild CIC, facilitating walks, workshops and courses that reconnect people with the land. He loves nothing more than to celebrate the stories of plants and to help people deepen their understanding of and connection with the plants in our everyday landscapes.
A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden is a programme exploring our relationship to plant-life and land.
Before its current name of ‘Northumbria’, in the 6th century Bernicia stretched from the River Forth to the River Tees. Today Bernicia’s Garden is a speculative, imagined land, an allotment plot, a hillside, a moorland, a river, a forest garden, filled with microbial kin, people, plants and animals. There are no enclosures. There are no landowners.
A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden is a programme initiated by artist Holly Argent with The NewBridge Project’s Programme Committee, in which you are invited to walk, garden, and study with the land. Entangled with questions of intimacy, access, ownership, land rights, queer ecology and food sovereignty; these acts are always political.
The programme is intentionally slow and shaped around three public walks, a season of skill-sharing workshops with queer gardening group TopSoil; and a long-term research commission.
Poster design by Benji Spence.
This event is taking place outside—please wear warm layers and comfortable footwear. TopSoil allotment is on one level. The ground can be bumpy and uneven, and contains different textures.
The allotment is on a public path, behind a tall gate. Members of the public walking past will be able to see into the allotment.
Please get in touch with us on admin@thenewbridgeproject.com to make a request for support or if you have any questions.
NewBridge has a Safer, Braver Spaces policy. Everyone here treats each other with respect and consideration. Transphobia, misogyny, racism or harassment of any kind is not welcome.
Sharpening Our Tools: Skill-sharing at the TopSoil allotment is part of A Revolt in Bernicia’s Garden at The NewBridge Project, a programme exploring our relationship with plant life and the land. Developed by artist Holly Argent with The NewBridge Project’s Programme Committee.
September 2025 – April 2026
Free
TopSoil Allotment
Newcastle upon Tyne
The NewBridge Project is a charity, registered charity no. 1173849.
We are grateful to our funders, including Arts Council England, Newcastle City Council, Garfield Weston Foundation, Jerwood Foundation, Community Foundation North East, Newcastle University and the The North East Mayoral Strategic Authority.
We are proud to be a Gallery of Sanctuary.
