Abberton Rural Training

21/05/2026

💚This week our staff, volunteers, and participants have been working this week in preparation for Wormingford in Bloom 💚🌸🌷🪻🌸

The site is looking lovely, and we have also successfully harvested another crop🤩👨🏾‍🌾👩🏼‍🌾🥬🥕

14/05/2026

🪵 HELP US REFRESH OUR PATHWAYS! 🪵
Calling all local tree surgeons, gardeners, and friends of Abberton Rural Training!💚

Our beautiful wood chip path in Wormingford is starting to disappear.
After years of heavy use by our wonderful students, the bark has naturally broken down and we are in need of a top-up.

​As a charity supporting vulnerable adults and those with SEN, these paths are vital for keeping our site accessible and safe for everyone to enjoy.
⭐​Can you help?⭐

If you are a local contractor with spare wood chip/bark, or if you know someone who might be able to donate a load, please get in touch!
​📍 Location: Wormingford, Colchester
​✉️ Contact: [email protected] or comment on this post
​Please SHARE this post to help us spread the word! 🌳

12/05/2026

🌟We are planning a couple more dates for our popular DIY course for beginners 🔨...to register your interest and be added to the waiting list please contact us at
📩 [email protected]

08/05/2026

Lunch at Abberton Rural Training this week was homemade vegetable soup 🥬🥕🥔🍲😋💛💚
Rustled up by Volunteers Cathy & Matthew👏🏼🧑🏼‍🍳👨🏽‍🍳

Some vegetables were grown🌱 on-site by our Horticulture course participants and other ingredients provided by the / Essex County Council food support fund and donations from Fairfields Farm Crisps 🥔💚💚

Mr carrot 🥕 is pictured just for his interesting looks 😄

We provide participants that attend our courses with a hot meal 🧡 and this weeks soup went down a treat 😋

06/05/2026

05/05/2026

It’s Composting Awareness Week, and with spring gardens waking up, it’s a great time to try home composting 🪱

Composting is a simple way to create your own soil improver, helping your plants and making the most of your garden clippings and food scraps.

Essex residents can also buy reduced price compost bins, including traditional compost bins and bokashi bins.

To get started, plus tips for spring composting, visit LoveEssex 🔎

30/04/2026

🌻🌼🌸🌷🌻🪷🌸🌺🌸🌷🌻🌼🌸🌷🌻🪷🌸🌺🌸

🌱This week is National Gardening Week 😊
which runs from 27 April to 3 May 2026 and organised by the RHS - Royal Horticultural Society

🌻It is celebrated every year to encourage people of all ages and abilities to engage with gardening, get outside,👩🏼‍🌾learn new skills and promote the physical and mental benefits of gardening🌻

🎉For 2026, we’re celebrating the simple pleasure of being curious in the garden. From the soft rustle of new leaves 🌿🍂to the first signs of pollinators returning 🐝🐞 every corner offers something worth noticing.
Curiosity encourages us to pause,💚😊to explore and to enjoy the natural details that often go unseen.

⭐If you would like learn new skills, socialise, have fun and discover how gardening can nurture your wellbeing 🌱🤗🌻

📩Email us to register for our free funded UKRS Introduction to Horticulture course available in Wormingford and Harwich or Volunteer for our Community Garden in Maldon
[email protected]

27/04/2026

💜Last Tuesday, we had some very special visitors to The Old St Andrew's Primary School.

Two ladies, who were on a 'Trip down memory lane' 🕰️💭🥰popped into see us at the school. One of the ladies was 'Miss Welsh' (as was) who taught at the school between 1970-1977 👩🏼‍🏫

She had lots of wonderful tales to tell us (luckily Gill Byrne was on site visiting us and so more on this will feature in future editions of 'The Worm') and we wondered if any of our resident Wormingford followers remember Miss Welsh from their time at the school?

Her visit got us at ART 💚 taking a trip down memory lane too☺️...

📙We had a look through the old school 'Log Books' to see if we could see her mentioned (she was!) We have two of these school log books preserved in our glass cabinet here at the site - the first of which was dated 16th September 1889!

The books contain details of HM Inspector reports, Attendance Officer visits, notices of Schoolmasters and even documents a number of measles and scarlet fever epidemics affecting the schoolchildren in the village.

We have given you a taste of just some of the hundreds of entries below...

🗓️March 13th 1891
'Violet Cutmore has been very obstinate and bad tempered today, did all her lessons very badly. I had to punish her by keeping her in'

🗓️April 6th 1891
'Mrs James Bones rushed into school in a voilent manner and took her child out contrary to the Master's orders. Her behaviour was altogether very bad indeed and calculated to have had a very bad effect on the children...'

🗓️July 13th 1902
'A number of children were absent part of the week pea picking'

HM Inspector's Report August 1903
'The Mistress is painstaking and industrious but the work of the lower classes is still inferior to that of higher ones'

🗓️September 21st 1903
'A holiday was given on Thursday afternoon for the Horticultural Show.
Sarah Brown, Kate Collins and Lizzie Jaggs gained needlework prizes and Ethel Clampen, Beatrice Jaggs and Alice Wade knitting prizes...'

⭐Do any of you recognise the names/surnames from your family tree? Could they be relatives of yours?!

⭐If you or anyone in Wormingford are interested in viewing the books or taking a trip down memory lane, please comment below. We would like to arrange a community event whereby people can view the Log Books and share stories and memories of the school with others. ART can provide a warm space and tea and coffee in the old school building.

⭐Comment on here or feel free to email [email protected] to register your interest.

27/04/2026

💛 New Flyer Just Landed — Can You Help Me Spread the Word?

I’m so excited to share this… my brand‑new A5 flyer with all my regular monthly drop‑ins is finally signed off and ready to go! 💙💛
As your Help For Heroes Community Builder for Colchester, I’m here to help veterans and their families feel connected, supported, and part of something special. These friendly, relaxed drop‑ins are open to all members and friends of the Armed Forces community - and everyone is welcome for a brew, a chat, and a warm sense of belonging.
If you can spare a moment, I’d be incredibly grateful if you could share this flyer far and wide - on your own page, in groups, or with anyone who might benefit. The more people who see it, the more people we can reach. 🙌
📣 Regular monthly drop‑ins include:
☕ Level Best Enterprise Café
☕ Kingsland Community Café
☕ Harpers Community Café
☕ Delta by Marriott Colchester Hotel
☕ CESSAC Community Café (with Arianne from AMEY)
Thank you so much for helping spread the word — every share truly makes a difference. 💚 Hotel Delta Colchester Kingsland Church Cessac Community Cafe Colchester

20/04/2026

Do you want to socialise, have fun and enjoy being in a beautiful, relaxing rural setting 💜🪻🌳☺️

Come along to our new Wellbeing Tuesday session, free and open to all.

If you enjoy gardening you will have access to tend to our allotments and help out in community gardening in the local area🌱🥬

This weeks activities include a wellbeing walk (inc a photography lesson – bring your smart phone!)

A chance to chat about our supporting Wormingford in Bloom and how you can contribute🌻🪻🌺🌼

💜This weeks discussion theme is ‘When I was younger…’ and to bring in something from your childhood to share as a group 😊

⭐Refreshments and hot lunch provided for all participants 🍴😋

📍Come along tomorrow
The Old St Andrews primary School
Church rd Wormingford
Colchester Co6 3az