Helping Scrubditch Care Farm grow
12 May 2022
The Symondson Foundation is delighted to help Scrubditch Care Farm grow (in both the literal and figurative sense!), by giving a capital grant to their ‘Landscape Transformation Project’.
Set in the rolling landscape of the Churn Valley, Scrubditch Care Farm supports children and adults with learning disabilities and adults living with dementia. In and around their education centre, they provide therapeutic farm-based training and real farm work experience, including caring for animals, growing and cooking produce, and learning a wealth of skills. Engaging their students in this way helps engender a sense of responsibility and confidence, building independence whilst also cultivating a supportive community. Being active and in the fresh air tangibly improves the physical and mental health of students, and offers vital support to carers of the students, giving them some time for themselves, away from the demands of their rigid routines.
“I like going to the farm because I feel relaxed up there… The staff at the farm make me feel welcome and when I return from the farm, the staff there can see a difference, because when I return all I do is talk about the farm and what I have done there.” Student
With plans thoughtfully designed by renowned landscape architect and broadcaster, Chris Beardshaw, Scrubditch are transforming the land around their education centre so that they can expand in number and operations, and grow a bounty of plant and animal life on the land. They will be creating a clay-lined natural pond – burgeoning with biodiversity – and an orchard and fowl enclosure, with free ranging ducks and hens, and fruit trees for harvesting, which will be used for cooking and juicing, as well as supplementing the pigs’ and poultry’s diets. Accessibility and safety are integral to the design, with the incorporation of a wheelchair accessible pond viewing platform, and a 190m all-weather perimeter track allowing access to all parts of the garden, no matter the conditions.
We are full of admiration for the holistic, joined-up thinking of the design, which supports the natural world whilst nurturing a community, and wish Scrubditch well as they break ground later in the year.
Website: www.scrubditchcarefarm.org.uk
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