Rooted Chippenham

30/05/2026

UPDATE: This is now fully booked, but you can still register to join the waitlist if any tickets become available.

Join us for a guided bat walk in Monkton Park on 13 June at 9pm to celebrate Eco-Future Fest!

This event will begin with a short talk - learn what makes our native bats so special, why they need our help and how to use a bat detector.

As the sun sets we'll lead a guided walk, stopping to marvel as the different bat species emerge, hopefully spotting one of the rarer species of bat in the UK!

Booking essential here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/rootedchippenham/2238154

Rooted Chippenham will also be exhibiting at Eco-Future Fest on the 14 June in the Neeld Hall 11am to 4pm.

29/05/2026

💧🌳 Can you help keep our new community orchard alive this summer? 🌳💧

Earlier this year, we planted the new Lords Mead Community Orchard – creating a beautiful space that will provide fruit, wildlife habitat and community benefits for years to come.

But young trees need a helping hand and regular watering is essential to thrive.

👉 We're seeking local volunteers to be Orchard Stewards, who can spare a little time to help water and care for the young trees.

Whether you can help once a week, once a fortnight or just occasionally, every contribution makes a difference!

Rooted Chippenham will provide:

✅ A simple watering rota
✅ Equipment to carry water to the site
✅ Guidance on what needs doing over the seasons

We're also working on installing rainwater harvesting to make watering easier and more sustainable in the future.

If you'd like to help protect this fantastic community asset and watch it grow, we'd love to hear from you - please email [email protected] to request more information.

Together, we can help the Lords Mead Community Orchard put down strong roots and flourish for generations to come. 🍎🍐🌳

19/05/2026

This week we received four new giant water storage tanks for Rooted Chippenham Community Tree Nursery, all thanks to The Tree Council Growing Together programme for new CTNs!

These beauties will provide us with a whopping 4,000 litres of rainwater harvesting capacity, connected to the roofs of existing structures nearby.

We already know they will prove invaluable for watering the 1,000s of native trees we grow to give away. Support like this for community tree growing projects is a real game changer!

16/05/2026

A huge thank you to everyone who joined our Spring bat walks this May! Over 50 people came along for our sunset wildlife walks at Pewsham Locks, Monkton Park and Rowden Park - you were brilliant!

Thank you as well to our brilliant Rooted volunteers Jennie, David and Theo who helped make it happen, and Howard Yardy and his team at Pewsham Locks.

We had an absolute blast, met lots of lovely people and answered some brilliant bat questions. A highlight was watching a rarer Serotine bat at Monkton Park circle around us feeding. Not many bats at Rowden Park last night due to the chilly weather, the activity really dropped off, but we still had a nice walk together!

In total our bat walks raised £120 to support Rooted Chippenham, which makes a real difference to us. We had some lovely feedback too:

"We loved it! It was absolutely brilliant, especially seeing the Serotine bat. The talk at the start was fascinating and the whole thing was really engaging. And quite a thrill detecting them."

We'll be announcing a June bat walk for Eco-Future Fest soon and more walks this Autumn - follow us for updates on those!

15/05/2026

We have two tickets available for our bat walk at Rowden Park TONIGHT due to a last minute cancellation! Please come and join us for our sunset wildlife safari so they are not wasted!

Book here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/rootedchippenham/2090001

14/05/2026

We have one ticket available for our bat walk at Rowden Park on Friday evening, come and join us for a sunset wildlife safari!

Book here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/rootedchippenham/2090001

09/05/2026

Join us for our regular garden meet up this Sunday from 10am to 1pm-ish!

Everyone welcome, all ages and abilities. We'll be sowing courgettes and squashes, planting tomatoes in the polytunnel, feeding our trees and doing some maintenance including strimming. Come along to get stuck in or to have a chat and connect over a cup of tea.

Find us at the Wiltshire and Swindon History Centre, we hope to see you there!

07/05/2026

We have one ticket left for our Monkton Park bat walk tomorrow! Join us for a fun evening stroll at sunset with plenty of bat facts and bat detectors.

We'll be on a special mission to track down a less common bat too...

Grab the last ticket here:

Free sunset bat walk at Monkton Park – Monkton Park, Chippenham, Fri 8 May 2026 - Join us for a fascinating sunset bat walk through Monkton Park! This free event will begin promptly at 8.20pm with a short talk - learn what makes our native bats so special, why they need our help and how to use a b...

03/05/2026

UPDATE: These trees have all now gone. We expect to have more to give away this winter.

In addition to our oaks, we also have a mix of 16 native woodland trees grown locally, all potted and 2 years old, ideally to go as a job lot ASAP for a small woodland planting or mixed native hedging. Includes Crab Apple, Hazel, Field Maple, Wych Elm, Whitebeam, Blackthorn.

All free from our Community Tree Nursery - please message for more details, may be able to deliver.

03/05/2026

UPDATE: These trees have now all gone. We expect to have more trees to give away this winter.

We have 14 oak and one horse chestnut sapling in our Community Tree Nursery looking for a new home ASAP!

These are over two years old, potted and between 30cm and 50cm tall. Not for a small garden - if you have a patch of land or woodland for these mighty trees and can keep them watered as they establish please send us a message, they are free to a good home.