In the autumn of 2025 Jo, Zinnia and Jane came together to found Common Cloth CIC. Prior to this the flax and dye gardens were run by us and a small group of volunteers as a grass roots community initiative known as Whalley Range Urban Flax (@wr.urban.flax).

Present (2025 & 2026)

Northern Roots

This season we are preparing the ground and sowing a small field of flax alongside a forest dye garden at Northern Roots new urban farm in Oldham. The grand opening is scheduled for the August bank holiday weekend when we hope that the public will join us and get hands on with the harvest.

We are currently recruiting local volunteers to get involved on Mondays and learn about all things flax. We would also like you to help us build the experimental forest dye garden. This is our most ambitious garden venture to date.

Volunteer Session: Mondays 10:30am – 1:30pm

Contact Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com for more information.

Forever Fields

Now in our second year of growing flax, woad and a whole host of dye plants in our bed at Forever Fields in Chorlton, we are looking forward to working with diverse community groups. We enjoy the generous support and encouragement of Sam from MUD and Jenny from St Margaret’s Centre as well as help looking after the plot from the Community Payback Team.

Last year’s crop was sown and harvested with the cooperation of Queer Roots at their regular Sunday volunteer session. We also got stuck into a spot of fresh leaf woad dyeing together.

Thanks to the opportunity of a larger plot and more growing space, we have been experimenting with autumn sowing of woad and weld seeds, as well as our usual spring sowing. Needless to say we are looking forward to a steady supply of fresh woad throughout the summer.

Many thanks to the Community Payback Team who have pitched in to help build a low willow border (yes Ryan we mean you!) and prepare the bed for growing. It has been very rewarding working together.

This year we were very fortunate to have a very public flax sowing event at this year’s May Day Celebrations organised by MUD. Thank you very much to all the lovely people who came to visit the plot; it was a pleasure to talk to so may interested people. Many hands make light work and in no time at all the ground was tilled to a fine crumb and the seed had been broadcast. We are looking forward to seeing some familiar faces in 100 days time when we reconvene for the harvest.

Volunteer Session: Mondays 1pm – 3pm

Contact Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com for more information.

The Bird Box

The Bird Box is …… Since summer 2025 they have come to roost at a permanent base, the former Caretaker’s Cottage in the grounds of Manley Park Primary’s Infant School site.

In their outdoor space the Bird Box and a team of volunteers are creating an educational garden space for babies, toddlers and their families. This project is based on closed-loop principles. By practising active stewardship of the space we ….. Many natural resources from the garden have already been used in sustainable, creative activities.

This season we have a dedicated flax and dye bed recently woven out of willow harvested from the garden. It is already home to madder, tansy and woad.

Volunteer Session: every other Friday 10am – 12pm

Contact Tash at info@thebirdbox.co.uk or Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com for more information.

Whalley Range Community Forum

Volunteer Session: Saturday morning, monthly.

Contact Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com for more information.

St John’s Centre

Local Colour: Wednesdays 1pm – 3pm

Contact Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com for more information.

Ordsall Hall

Jo from Common Cloth CIC can often be found here in the garden on Thursday mornings (term time only) laboriously processing flax with hand tools. She is very happy to pause and answer your questions.

At Ordsall Hall a host of useful, but lesser known, dye plants are already well established. Last autumn we experimented with horse raddish leaves and sweet woodruff roots kindly donated by head gardener, Jo Green.

It was also a great pleasure to be roped into last year’s flax harvest which had been sown earlier in the year by Jo and her wonderful volunteers under the guidance of Simon from Flaxland. We took the opportunity to experiment with different methods for flax retting (pond retting and dew retting) and are now busy assessing, recording and evaluating the results which are proving very interesting. We hope to use the results to inform more extensive trials this autumn and publish the findings.

Contact Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com for more information.

Flax Processing Demo, Thursdays 10.30am – 11.30am, near the community barn.

Past (2021-2024)

It was just after lockdown when Jo and Zinnia took their first baby steps into flax growing and processing. Our friendship grew through the joint creation of a mini garden on an unloved scrap of land. We were also both interested in more sustainable materials for fibre crafts and decided to grow our own. Limited growing space in our urban neighbourhood (and a love of gorilla gardening) suggested a more collective approach; we made a poster and invited people to grow a pot, or small plot, of flax. With some seeds from Flaxland, reused plant pots from Hulme Community Garden Centre and compost generously donated by Unicorn Grocery we launched “Let’s Grow Flax Together” in our local community. It was spring 2022. Friends, neighbours and total strangers attended pop-up sowing sessions in the park and in front gardens. There was a huge amount of curiosity and engagement from a broad cross section of the local community. We were hooked.

Door Step Pots

Dawn and Seamus’s Mini Back Garden Plot

Reception Class at Manley Park Primary School

Tom and Amy’s Front Garden

The Carlton Club

Farida’s Allotment Plot

Future

Would you or your organisation like to get involved in an existing flax and dye garden or start up your own and expand the network of Greater Manchester Flax growers?

Contact Jo at commonclothmcr@gmail.com