Renny Antonelli: Peterborough's original eco-warrior
Renny Antonelli is proud to be one of the original environmentalists, a man, who for decades, has been living the kind of life many are now beginning to aspire to.
Renny Antonelli is proud to be one of the original environmentalists, a man, who for decades, has been living the kind of life many are now beginning to aspire to.He first began helping out on his parents' allotment, behind Baker Perkins, when he was just boy.
By the time Renny was an adult, he and wife Elizabeth, who live in Bretton, Peterborough, were the real-life Tom and Barbara Good, from the hit '70s sitcom The Good Life.
Related:
Green Backyard project: A green space to learn about growing food, 7 January, 2009.
---------------------
"We were definitely living that lifestyle," he said. "At one point I was very anti-cars, I can remember not wanting to learn to drive or have a car but it's difficult as a self-employed wood worker if you're not going to drive. You can ask my wife, I wanted to have a donkey."
Renny's passion for growing his own vegetables and being as self sufficient as possible has very pragmatic roots. Born in Italy, he came from a proudly rural area, and when his family came to this county, they carried on the traditions of growing food, as well as making do and mending.
"As soon as we came over here, we had a garden in the back with rabbits and chickens and obviously the poo had to go somewhere, and so my dad said 'ok, we'll have to have an allotment'," Renny said.
As well as being a self-employedcarpenter, Renny also runs courses through the college of adult education, goes into schools to run various environmental and craft classes, and is an artist, working in clay, wood and other materials.
He has had an allotment at Dogsthorpe for 25 years and has set up a project called Eco Art, joining forces with another allotment holder, Gerry Warren.
Because Renny was going into schools to run classes, he would take pupils down to the allotment.
Soon their project was attracting the attention of Peterborough City Council.
"The city council realised what we were doing a good thing. When it came to Peterborough In Bloom, the site was able to host the judges. They could see how gardens were really at the forefront of solving some of those urban problems we've got," Renny said.
Gerry and Renny are not working together on the new project, but Renny is taking forward his experiences at Eco Art to create the Green Backyard.
Renny has a passionate belief that being green – at least when it comes to gardening – is good for our soul.
He said: "I've heard of stories that getting your hands dirty in the soil in the garden actually has a feedback loop because we have been digging around in the mud and dirt for so long. That feedback loop releases endorphins. We're happy when we're doing the gardening, when we're digging."
Email to a friend
Print this page - Popular
- Most comments
- Most shared
Looking for...
Featured advertisers
Local pages
Looking for a...
Jobs
Search for a job
Motors
Search for a car
Property
Search for a house
Weather for Peterborough
Thursday 29 July 2010
Today
Sunny spells
Temperature: 11 C to 22 C
Wind Speed: 16 mph
Wind direction: North west
Tomorrow
Sunny spells
Temperature: 16 C to 23 C
Wind Speed: 15 mph
Wind direction: West
Your view
Please sign in to be able to comment on this story.