Victorian bottle diggers destroy Birmingham school allotments

Amanda Parkes said the site had been left unsafe, with only three beds for children to use

Antique bottle diggers have destroyed a primary school's allotment during a hunt for valuable finds.

People have long been targeting sites in Birmingham which are believed to be old Victorian rubbish dumps.

Amanda Parkes said a site Wheelers Lane Primary School used as an allotment was now unsafe for children.

"We have got enormous holes and big piles of soil where bottle diggers have been and essentially destroyed the allotment," she said.

Hunters target sites all over England looking for rare bottles which can be worth hundreds of pounds.

But many go to extreme and occasionally criminal lengths to find them, including breaking into the allotment site in Kings Heath.

Mrs Parkes, a parent governor who looks after the allotment, said a teacher had fallen into one hole which was 4ft (122 in) deep and difficult to see as it was underneath a grass area.

"Fortunately she wasn't hurt at all," she said, adding that it was also unsafe because diggers were putting all the rubbish from deep underground on top.

Different plots in the city had been targeted by bottle hunters for the past 20 years, Mrs Parkes said.

"They have largely left ours alone but then this year they have really gone to town on it."

The allotment is used for peaceful reading and helps enrich children's learning and lives, says the school

The children at the school had been left with only three beds, while a "little field of raspberries" on the 50 metre-long site was partly killed.

The allotment was "vital to school" but they would now have to raise money to rebuild it, as there was "nothing" for the children to do now.

"The site is just not safe for them now. We need to spend a lot of time and a lot of effort putting it back to how it was," Mrs Parkes said.

Different sites have been targeted by people looking for Victorian and other bottles and items

Children told BBC Radio WM how they enjoyed the site, with a six-year-old pupil saying she liked "picking the raspberries" and a boy aged nine enjoyed planting vegetables and fruit and picking them "when they are ready" and eating them at school.

Mark Dunn, the assistant head, said the plot was used for quiet reading and teaching and gave some children opportunities they may not have at home.

"We see it as a very important tool that we use to enrich the children's learning. And to not be able to do that just because of senseless vandalism, quite honestly we are appalled," he said.

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