People and their environment are better protected when they have control of their local land, enterprises and services.
Biobased Economy
Ecological Homes
Community Skills
Our ecological values
Wessex Community Assets is driven by our commitment to social justice, environmental sustainability, and the power of people in connected communities to change their world. We apply these values in all our work and use them to review our performance and assess new initiatives.
The Summer of Seed – Hemp Field Trial report 2023
A grant from the Dorset National Landscape Farming in Protected Landscapes Fund (FiPL) has helped Wessex Community Assets Ltd (WCA) work with a group of West Dorset Farmers to explore the logistics of Hemp as a break crop and undertake field trials in growing, harvesting and processing Hemp. With more farmers involved and another year of challenging weather there was…
David Dixon leads on WCA’s work with local farmers growing and processing hemp as part of a regenerative agriculture project. Collaborative environmental action has been at the heart of over 20 years working in the landscape sector, engaging with ambitious and innovative ecological and community engagement projects.
Find out about our industrial hemp field trials
Raise the Roof
How do we create ecological housing, utilising natural materials and local expertise – in ways that are affordable even for those on low incomes? This is the focus of the Raise the Roof project, which is developing a model for locally rooted manufacturing and the construction or retrofitting of affordable housing, linked to regenerative land use. Wessex is currently working with a range of partners, including the architects Assemble Studio…
Tim Crabtree is a co-founder of WCA and has 20 years co-ordinating research and innovation in the field of community led housing. Through Raise the Roof, he’s currently seeking to change the way we build affordable housing.
Find out about our ecological homes concept
Spinning straw into gold
As part of Wessex Community Asset’s work to develop the bioregional economy in SW England, we held a workshop on hemp fibre with 30 participants at our workspace in West Dorset. The process begins with separating (“decorticating”) the outer bast fibre from the woody core (the shiv), either manually with a hemp break or with our Hurdmaster decortication machine. The…
Lucy Beasley
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About
Wessex Community Assets is a Community Benefit Society, governed by a board of directors, and driven by our theory of change. You can explore our theory of change in the diagram below.