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…

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…

Over the last 14 years, Wessex Community Assets has provided a range of support to Bridport Cohousing. They are just completing the UK’s largest affordable co-housing project, with 53 homes made available through rent and shared ownership. Wessex helped to register the group as a Community Benefit Society, using our model rules, and this allows…

Raise the Roof is a project co-ordinated by WCA in partnership with the Arts Development Company Common Ground, Plymouth University, Turner-prize winning design collective Assemble, Bridport Area Community Housing, Bridport Town Council and Bridport Community Shed. Funders include the Friends Provident Foundation and Dorset AONB, which has supported work with local farmers on field trials…

WCAs were successful in securing a grant from the Dorset AONB Farming in Protected Landscapes Fund to lead an investigation into Hemp as a break crop within a regenerative agricultural system.  The grant, secured through the Raise the Roof project,  brought together a group of local farmers and landowners to explore the opportunities and constraints…

Over the course of 2020 we ran a series of webinars to explore different aspects of and steps on the way to community-led housing projects. You can see these at the links below: Community-led Housing: Short Introduction Community-led Housing and WCA: Full Introduction Finance Build with a Partner Build it Yourself Creating a group and…

During the year we progressed the Wessex Community Housing Hub, supported by funding from Community Led Homes. We established and supported an Advisory Panel, employed a Community Housing Advisor, Colin McDonald, and supported 25 projects. Because of COVID, public meetings were not possible, but we delivered a series of online workshops attended by or subsequently…

A radical plan for community ownership and regenerative farming. The Chettle Estate in North Dorset consists of nearly 900 acres of arable and pasture land including 60 acres of woodland. It has a thriving village shop, a well-respected restaurant with 8 rooms (the Castleman Hotel) and 33 dwellings in the village of Chettle. The estate,…

One important task of setting up a new community enterprise is selecting the right legal structure that will work for your business.  Its easy to get lost in a maze of terminology and options. In this blog Diana provides a little of the history of the Community Benefit Society and explains why it is the…

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…