Raising awareness of the climate emergency and respect for the planet
About us
Sustainable Woodstock is a community action group and our action focuses on raising awareness and leading local campaigns for climate and nature. We encourage sustainable practices by sharing knowledge and ideas with individuals, families, businesses, organisations and elected representatives and also by organising and joining in activities, projects, campaigns and lobbying our MP and other public officials. We network with other local community groups and offer opportunities for volunteering.
We’re inclusive, friendly and we welcome support, teamwork and partnership throughout Woodstock and Oxfordshire. We want to be greener by helping nature recover and thrive, cleaner by supporting sustainable travel, renewable energy, cutting pollution and waste, and safer by helping build resilience to the climate impacts. What we want is a healthy and safe future for our children and future generations, and a town we’re proud to call home.
Individual actions and community-led initiatives can be cumulative and effective and bring about a large national-level impact. Nature is in free-fall and our climate is warming, but we can turn things around. Nature and climate action is more effective when carried out close to home and
We are not alone and we are one of 117 community action groups (CAGs) in Oxfordshire that make up the Oxfordshire CAG Network (https://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk) that works across Oxfordshire to make it a safer, fairer, greener and more sustainable place to live, work and visit.
History – the story of ‘SusWoo’
Community Woodland 2010. First planting – 11th Duke of Marlborough, John Spencer-Churchill, Pauline Richardson, Colin Carritt, Peter Jay, ? John Banbury, Canon Adrian Daffern XXXXXX
Colin Carritt established Sustainable Woodstock in the Autumn of 2008. XXXXX
2009 – we campaigned to make Woodstock a “Plastic Bag Free Town” and received help from a grant from Oxfordshire County Council – we still offer bags today. We marketed our unique and popular Sustainable Woodstock jute and canvas bags to the local retailers.
In 2018, we embarked on a town wide campaign to make Woodstock a Single-Use Plastic Free town. We registered Woodstock as a Plastic Free Community (part of Surfers Against Sewage), surveyed the many town businesses – but there is still much work to do by individuals as well to reduce the impact of single-use plastic that’s litters our countryside, pollutes our rivers and beaches, harms wildlife and enters our food chain in the form of micro plastics – and it’s made from fossil fuels. Surfers Against Sewage coordinate the national campaign and have established guidelines and targets to achieve the status as well as providing toolkits to help local businesses and schools to reduce their dependence on single-use plastics.
In 2010 the Woodstock Community Woodland was created. With an 80 year free-of-charge lease from His Grace the 11th Duke of Marlborough, we planted 1600 trees near Hill Rise. The new woodland is free to visit and is becoming a haven for wildlife and a resource for coppiced timber and country crafts. We planted ash, hazel, oak, sycamore, and many more varieties with protected open spaces to provide a useful habitat for bio-diversity as well as a pleasant place to walk.
And in 2017 we extended our woodland with the creation of a traditional community orchard consisting of 82 mostly heritage local varieties of fruit trees. The trees are planned to provide an extended flowering and fruiting season that will attract pollinating bees, butterflies and insects as well as providing an ideal habitat for wildlife in general. In time it is planned to harvest the fruit for the community with, perhaps, apple pressing and cider making.
Tree planting – to celebrate 900 years of Woodstock, several town groups came up with the idea to plant a community woodland. Blenheim offered a free lease and David Rees, a founder member and conservation forester, planned the woodland. the XXXX Duke of Marlborough planted the first tree (see above). Volunteers from all parts of our community completed the planting of 1600 mixed native trees and we have managed the woodland since. But in 2017 we went to Blenheim again to ask if we could plan a ‘traditional’ orchard in an adjacent field, and they agreed. In the November we planted 82 heritage fruit saplings purchased with donations from individuals, families and groups in Woodstock. The woodland canopy has now closed, nature is more diverse, the fruit trees are taking their time … but they are beginning to thrive with TLC from volunteers. 6 more fruit trees were added to celebrate the King’s Coronation after being awarded a grant from West Oxfordshire District Council WODC. Woodstock Town Council WTC are guarantors of last resort and we encouraged Woodstock Town Council WTC to register the community woodland and orchard as a green space.
Biodiversity and Nature Recovery – we do not use pesticides or herbicides in the woodland and orchard, we have added secondary planting and have been creating a meadow to encourage pollinators in the woodland and orchard ; we support the International Tree Foundation’s initiative by working with other community action groups in Oxfordshire in the Free Tree Giveaway with the aim to plant more wildlife friendly trees in gardens, etc. and create more interest in promoting nature recovery.
Other activities:
Signing petitions and attending rallies in support of national campaigns related to our environment, climate and nature issues
Communicating and networking – talks and discussions, film evenings, information events, attending/participating in local events, regular e-newsletters, social media, website and networking with similar community action groups
Volunteering in the community woodland and orchard – learning new skills and socialising
Community litter picks
Active travel – promoting
Lobbying MPs, elected representatives, councils and other stakeholders to promote an informed understanding of climate and nature-related issues and to encourage them to act in the best interest of our community and the planet
Reducing Waste
promoting re-use through swap shops
promoting refill or alternatives to reduce single-use plastic
Energy
Collective buying of solar PV to reduce costs
Thermal imaging resident homes to direct insulation needs
Signing petitions and attending rallies in support of national campaigns related to our environment, climate and nature issues
Our leadership
Ed King Chair
Colin Carritt Vice-Chair
Hilary Brown Communications
Graham Brown – Treasurer
Working Group Representatives
Lobbying – Climate and Ecological Emergency, Colin Carritt, Ed King, Hilary Brown, Graham Brown
Woodland and Community Orchard: David Rees, Hilary Brown, Graham Brown
Wildlife and biodiversity: David Rees, Bob Pomfret, Hilary Brown, Graham Brown
Renewable energy and energy conservation: Graham Brown, Darrell Marchand, Doug Drewniak
Active travel, road safety: Colin Carritt, Jane Ma, David Walker, Oli Lanestead, Mark Walters
Pedestrian/cycle routes: Colin Carritt, David Walker, Oli Lanestead, Ed King, Jane Ma, Graham Brown, Mark Walters
Plastic Free Community: Hilary Brown, Jane Ma
Schools: Darrell Marchand, Hilary Brown, David Rees, David Walker
About us
Sustainable Woodstock is a community action group and our action focuses on raising awareness and leading local campaigns for climate and nature. We encourage sustainable practices by sharing knowledge and ideas with individuals, families, businesses, organisations and elected representatives and also by organising and joining in activities, projects, campaigns and lobbying our MP and other public officials. We network with other local community groups and offer opportunities for volunteering.
We’re inclusive, friendly and we welcome support, teamwork and partnership throughout Woodstock and Oxfordshire. We want to be greener by helping nature recover and thrive, cleaner by supporting sustainable travel, renewable energy, cutting pollution and waste, and safer by helping build resilience to the climate impacts. What we want is a healthy and safe future for our children and future generations, and a town we’re proud to call home.
Individual actions and community-led initiatives can be cumulative and effective and bring about a large national-level impact. Nature is in free-fall and our climate is warming, but we can turn things around. Nature and climate action is more effective when carried out close to home and
We are not alone and we are one of 117 community action groups (CAGs) in Oxfordshire that make up the Oxfordshire CAG Network (https://www.cagoxfordshire.org.uk) that works across Oxfordshire to make it a safer, fairer, greener and more sustainable place to live, work and visit.
History – the story of ‘SusWoo’
Colin Carritt established Sustainable Woodstock in the Autumn of 2008. XXXXX
2009 – we campaigned to make Woodstock a “Plastic Bag Free Town” and received help from a grant from Oxfordshire County Council – we still offer bags today. We marketed our unique and popular Sustainable Woodstock jute and canvas bags to the local retailers.
In 2018, we embarked on a town wide campaign to make Woodstock a Single-Use Plastic Free town. We registered Woodstock as a Plastic Free Community (part of Surfers Against Sewage), surveyed the many town businesses – but there is still much work to do by individuals as well to reduce the impact of single-use plastic that’s litters our countryside, pollutes our rivers and beaches, harms wildlife and enters our food chain in the form of micro plastics – and it’s made from fossil fuels. Surfers Against Sewage coordinate the national campaign and have established guidelines and targets to achieve the status as well as providing toolkits to help local businesses and schools to reduce their dependence on single-use plastics.
In 2010 the Woodstock Community Woodland was created. With an 80 year free-of-charge lease from His Grace the 11th Duke of Marlborough, we planted 1600 trees near Hill Rise. The new woodland is free to visit and is becoming a haven for wildlife and a resource for coppiced timber and country crafts. We planted ash, hazel, oak, sycamore, and many more varieties with protected open spaces to provide a useful habitat for bio-diversity as well as a pleasant place to walk.
And in 2017 we extended our woodland with the creation of a traditional community orchard consisting of 82 mostly heritage local varieties of fruit trees. The trees are planned to provide an extended flowering and fruiting season that will attract pollinating bees, butterflies and insects as well as providing an ideal habitat for wildlife in general. In time it is planned to harvest the fruit for the community with, perhaps, apple pressing and cider making.
Tree planting – to celebrate 900 years of Woodstock, several town groups came up with the idea to plant a community woodland. Blenheim offered a free lease and David Rees, a founder member and conservation forester, planned the woodland. the XXXX Duke of Marlborough planted the first tree (see above). Volunteers from all parts of our community completed the planting of 1600 mixed native trees and we have managed the woodland since. But in 2017 we went to Blenheim again to ask if we could plan a ‘traditional’ orchard in an adjacent field, and they agreed. In the November we planted 82 heritage fruit saplings purchased with donations from individuals, families and groups in Woodstock. The woodland canopy has now closed, nature is more diverse, the fruit trees are taking their time … but they are beginning to thrive with TLC from volunteers. 6 more fruit trees were added to celebrate the King’s Coronation after being awarded a grant from West Oxfordshire District Council WODC. Woodstock Town Council WTC are guarantors of last resort and we encouraged Woodstock Town Council WTC to register the community woodland and orchard as a green space.
Biodiversity and Nature Recovery – we do not use pesticides or herbicides in the woodland and orchard, we have added secondary planting and have been creating a meadow to encourage pollinators in the woodland and orchard ; we support the International Tree Foundation’s initiative by working with other community action groups in Oxfordshire in the Free Tree Giveaway with the aim to plant more wildlife friendly trees in gardens, etc. and create more interest in promoting nature recovery.
Other activities:
Our leadership
Chair
Vice-Chair
Working Group Representatives
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