1. Thursday 19 January, 7.15 for a 7.30pm start, Quaker Meeting House, 1a, Bourne Street SK9 5HD.We would love to have your input into our groups and activities; we need your knowledge, expertise, enthusiasm and time to develop the right projects for Wilmslow and to see them through. Even if you have never been to one of our meetings before, or you haven’t been in years, please do come along and help us shape the year ahead. You might want to join one of our groups, or help out with occasional volunteering, help us with admin tasks and grant applications, or just support us from the sidelines: whatever you can manage, we would be most grateful.
2. Wilmslow Guild till end of March: Lindow Moss Do visit the incredible “Window on Lindow” Exhibition at the Guild in Bourne Street, open during Guild opening hours. This is an exhibition of work by Phil Barton, ecologist and artist, who produced a piece of art on or about Lindow Moss each day in May last year.
3. FREE WORKSHOP 10.30 – 16.00 Saturday 11th February The Guild for Lifelong Learning Join us to find out more about Lindow Moss through Phil Barton’s drawings and accompanying text. During the day we will take a walk on the Moss and seek creative inspiration! Please register your interest:https://guildlifelonglearning.org/events/window-on-lindow-a-phil-barton-workshop News:
The Community Market Gardens have had a mega season for donations including money for a second polytunnel from the Transition Network and a generous £1,000 grant from Waitrose for all of our activities: here’s the outline that Andrew sent to them:
Transition Wilmslow does a lot of things in the community of Wilmslow and Handforth to try and reduce our carbon footprint -
running Repair Cafes, which we do at leat 3 times a year to boost reuse instead of landfill;
offering free energy surveys to help people save heating costs
getting the community planting trees, to try and absorb carbon emissions;
promoting community events, like walks and bike rides and our cycle powered band concert as part of our Festival of Nature, to get people working together without costing the earth;
and particularly with a direct link to Waitrose and supermarkets, setting up 4 community market gardens in Wilmslow.
The market gardens range from the small and public spaces - our one in The Temp, Wilmslow, to our large site at Oakenclough Children’s Centre, where we have involved guides, scouts, cubs, learning disabled adults, small children, and parents, in learning how to grow vegetables - and giving lots away. The community cafe in the Centre use our salad leaves instead of buying in, and the Hope Central Foodbank has benefited from donations of onions, potatoes and garlic .
We want to instal a new polytunnel and make some of our sites more disabled accessible - as well as better protected from pigeons and rabbits.
Tiny Forest News? There may be some exciting Tiny Forest News soon (https://earthwatch.org.uk/get-involved/tiny-forest) but we are still waiting! We'll put any positive news out on our Transition Wilmslow social media pages as soon as we have it. Fingers firmly crossed!
Update from our Groups:
Could you join one of our groups? let us know if you would like to, or come along on Thursday and hear our updates.
Energy: this is a new group starting up this year. What should we be concentrating on? Retrofit advice? A community energy scheme? Can you help?
Tree and Woodland: This group works with CEC parks organisation, Ansa, to develop tree planting schemes across the town, and is involved in the Tiny Forest project at the High School. Where we should we be planting trees/hedges and what species? Do you know of any potential planting sites? Do you know of streets or householders who might want advice on tree and hedge planting? We have an ambition to double tree cover in Wilmslow by 2040….how can we achieve that?
Community Market Gardens: We have three gardens now, one in The Temp in Gravel Lane, meet from the spring at 2pm on Sundays; The Forest Garden at Land Lane, meet on Saturday mornings from the spring; and the Oakenclough Community Market Garden in the grounds of the Children’s Centre. If you’d like to come along and join us, email wilmslowmarketgarden@gmail.com
Lindow Moss: we are still waiting to hear about the next phase of the restoration of the Moss. There is a major piece of work being done by the Wilmslow Neighbourhood Plan Implementation Group on the Wider Lindow Moss Landscape and as part of this TW is planning a Lindow Moss Trail. Let pippatyrrelljones@me.com know if you would like to be on the mailing list for future meetings. The “Window on Lindow” exhibition with work by eco-artist Phil Barton is at Wilmslow Guild until the end of March and definitely worth a visit.
Transport: We are supporting the 20s plenty campaign in Wilmslow, aiming to make the streets safer for active travel, and supporting efforts for walking and cycling.
Environment and Planning: could you help in responding to planning applications?
Repair Café: next café is 4 March at URC. Could you join our talented team of repairers? Or help with the café? Contact repaircafewilmslow@gmail.com
Festival of Nature: we had two cracking festivals in 2021 and 2022: would you like to organise another?
CiO update: we have applied for Charitable Status and are awaiting a decision from the Charities’ Commission.
Come along on Thursday and tell us what you'd like to see us do, or email us for more information. Look forward to seeing you!
The Transition Wilmslow team.
