Report on the Green Weekend 2025

A big thank you to all the visitors, stallholders and volunteers who made their way to Muddles Green on Saturday 12th July to make the Greening Chiddingly Green Weekend  2025 such an enjoyable event.

Despite the blistering heat, we had a good turnout for the Green Jamboree in Farley’s Yard. Visitors tried their hand at all sorts of eco craft activities including spinning, weaving, seed bomb making, bird feeder making and clay modelling. Gail Giles’ "Community Weave" was incredibly inspiring and very popular, with visitors weaving crops, foraged local vegetation and representations of the DNA of species living in our rivers and streams into a three-dimensional hanging frame. The completed weave will be on display as part of Artwave 2025. Younger visitors had great fun trying to spot Helen Denning's knitted "Woolly Wonders" on each stall. There was steady business at the Chiddingly Horticultural Society and Chiddingly WI stalls. The OVESCO energy advice stand engaged visitors in discussions about how to improve the energy efficiency of their homes. Unsurprisingly, given the sunshine and high temperatures, the Village Shop and Seven Sisters Spice sold a lot of iced drinks! 

The big hit of the day was our new Open Farm event. Nineteen visitors from as far afield as Alfriston and Hailsham joined me and local ornithologist Charlie Peverett touring Peke’s Farm, another nine visited Helen and Andrew Denning at Stream Mill Smallholding and seven joined Peter Gunner for a look round Burchetts Farm. It was incredibly life-affirming to see so many people interested in our nature restoration activities. If you have any feedback about any of the weekend's events, do please drop us an email.

I'll finish with a second big thank you to OHM Energy who generously sponsored the Green Weekend. Working out of East Sussex, the company offer a range of cost-effective sustainable solutions for heating and powering homes and businesses, including solar thermal, solar PV and heat pump technology. Visit their website for further details.

Collages of images from the Green Weekend 2025, including photographs of the Green Jamboree and Open Farm events. Images © Mark Valleley, Lucy Carnaghan Holt, Sue McHale and David Nash