HOORAY
- we've completed the shingle roof on the Long House. Many BIG
thank-yous to everyone who helped that marathon project. We got there,
and it looks beautiful.
Volunteer with us
Come and make a difference.
Learn conservation skills. Make new friends. Get fitter.
Click here to read Past
Masters article in March 2024 edition of Suffolk Norfolk Life magazine
Subscribe
to our mailing list and receive
all
the latest news about courses, volunteer tips and highlights, stories
about the project.
Our annual report for the year 22-23 is below. A video of our 24-25 Impact Statement can be viewed on YouTube.
View our Social impact report for 23-24 here (it's a PDF)
COURSES
CALENDER for
2026
As
a leading social enterprise we specialise in the delivery of Timber
Framing Restoration
Skills, Timber Framing, Wattle and Daub and Lime
courses for professionals,
home-owners, self-builders, and
anyone with an interest in getting hands-on with natural materials (or
learning how to instruct a builder more knowledgably).
We are a recognised provider of IHBC CPD
attendance certificates.
Vouchers for courses
are available. They also make excellent birthday, retirement or
retraining
presents.
Get hands-on experience of Wattle and Daub, using Hot Lime and Timber
Frame Repairs on our 4-day Timber
Frame Restoration Skills course
Y-post in Craft Barn
Watch our Earth Mortar video on YouTube.
|
|
25th
November 2025 We’re raising funds to boost biodiversity and bring back
the dragonflies, newts, toads, frogs, bats and wildlife at Orchard Barn
by restoring two wildlife ponds, planting for pollinators, and
expanding volunteer-led habitat work in the old orchard. With donations
tripled
by Aviva and BA Better World, your support goes even further. Rewards
include natural building workshops, heritage craft experiences, and
unique Orchard Barn gifts. Join us in helping nature return and thrive. Click here to make a donation and claim a unique reward!
CALL
OUT for new Volunteers.
Do you live in, or near to Babergh/Mid
Suffolk? Would you like to join our friendly, fun working parties? We
can offer you the opportunity to learn about working on the land using traditional hand tools. You'll make new
friends, get fitter, have fun - all in a beautiful, natural, rural
setting?
Volunteer
Working Parties are held 9-1 most Wednesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and
10-3 every second Saturdays.
To book
yourself onto one of our Taster Days
Email Sarah
or phone
07766-054042 for more information.
22,000
sweet chestnut shingles — all cleft, dressed and fitted by hand from
880 logs — crafted using traditional tools and skills. The timber came
from local woodland now being brought back into active coppice rotation
after decades of pause, making this roof not only handmade but rooted
in regenerative woodland management and biodiversity revival.
Photo
below shows the timber frame (2022) and home made insulation (2023) in
the walls of our new Education Building
Montage by Daisy of
July Summer School for University College London Architecture students
Our 'new
normal' is the reinstatement of a holistic approach of working
with Nature that provides participants with greater awareness,
experience and insights into the interconnected of the health of humans
with the health of our environment.
Orchard
Barn has its own YouTube channel with 550+ subscribers. Have a look
at our video
about why we set up this community building project in 2007, and what
we've collectively achieved since then.
|
|
