An urban farm at the centre of inner-city Nottingham has been helped to stay open after receiving a ten-thousand pound donation from a local funeral directors.

Stonebridge City Farm in St. Ann’s launched an urgent appeal at the beginning of January for £30,000 to cover its running costs or close down.

In just three weeks the visitors centre has received enough money to survive due to a generous donation from A.W Lymn Family Funeral Service which owns 27 offices across Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire.

The farm needs approximately £1,000 a day to cover its running costs.

Nigel Lymn, director of the Family Funeral firm said. “I wanted to give something back to a community project that makes people enjoy the city we live in.”

The farm has more than 120 volunteers on the site each week, two thirds of which have learning disabilities or mental health problems.

Stonebridge Farm Manager, Peter Armitage, described the project as a vital part of daily life for many people living in St. Ann’s.

An estimated 11,000 school children visit the farm each year as well as many other people from communities across the region such as Nottingham University Hospital patients:

“It’s an oasis of countryside within the city. There are so few of these left.”
Nigel Lymn, A. W. Lymn Funeral Director

The farm was formed by a community group from St Ann’s in the 1970s. For fifty years the farm has helped to bring the countryside to the city and prides itself on a unique and vital part to the inner-city community” according to Peter Armitage, Stonebridge Farm Manager.

Peter is proud to work for a business that does so much good for the people of Nottingham: “We offer so much and provide for so many. That’s why this centre can not close down,” he said.

Stonebridge continues to look for public donations to cover its ongoing running costs.

To donate head to their website: http://www.stonebridgecityfarm.com/donate/