Today, Wessex Community Assets is announcing a £50,000 grant from The National Lottery Heritage Fund to launch Flax Forward – a community led project that aims to research, share and celebrate Bridport’s rich flax-growing heritage and explore the potential of locally grown, natural materials for a sustainable future. Flax Forward is a partnership project that READ MORE
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“Broken and prepared for market”: West Dorset Flax Project 2025
Soil degradation, climate change, economic fragility and fragmentation – these are all challenges that rural areas in South West England are facing – and the cultivation of natural fibre crops, flax in particular, has been re-emerging as a practical and place-based response to these issues, rooted in the heritage and history of the region. Back READ MORE
Retrofit Reimagined: Dorset – Healthy Homes, Stronger Communities
Warmer homes, stronger communities, and a greener future for all. Retrofit Reimagined: Dorset invites you to explore how upgrading our homes can transform not just how we live, but how we connect with each other and the places we call home. Over one month of webinars and in-person gatherings, we’ll reimagine what retrofitting could mean READ MORE
Hemp, Flax, and Fibre Production- Field Trial Report 2024
Download our final report HERE Wessex Community Assets Ltd (WCA) has been working with a group of West Dorset Farmers to explore the logistics of Hemp and Flax as break crops by undertaking field trials in growing, harvesting and processing both crops. The project has been made possible through a grant from the Dorset National READ MORE
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 READ MORE
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 READ MORE
Bridport Cohousing
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 READ MORE