Burscough Community Farm CIC

27/10/2026

That time of year again!

Join us for our Christmas Wreath workshops using our farm grown willow and natural materials to make your perfect Christmas wreath

09/10/2026

Our free Reboot Your Life course gives you six Wednesdays in our willow coppice at Burscough Community Farm. You’ll work with your hands in the fresh air, at your own pace, with no pressure, alongside a small, friendly group who’ll be glad to see you each week. It’s open to everyone, and no experience is needed.

Starts: Wednesday 14th October
Time: 10am – 2pm, for six weeks
Cost: Completely free
Where: Burscough Community Farm, Meadow Lane, L40 4BB

Places are limited, so book yours now: burscoughcommunityfarm.org/reboot

07/10/2026

A brand-new Reboot Your Life course starts next Wednesday, and this time it’s open to everyone.

Join us at Burscough Community Farm for six Wednesdays of hands-on outdoor work: coppicing willow, weaving, building camps and making things you’ll be proud of. No experience needed. Just bring yourself and some outdoor clothes.

Starts: Wednesday 14th October
Time: 10am – 2pm, for six weeks
Cost: Completely free
Where: Burscough Community Farm, Meadow Lane, L40 4BB

Places are limited, so book yours now: burscoughcommunityfarm.org/reboot

16/09/2026

I made a prediction back in January, when we coppiced this coupe… and it came true! When we coppiced these willows I said they’d hit at least 8 feet. A few months later? 17 feet of growth. In a single season.
Willow is one of the fastest-growing, most useful plants you can put in the ground. It’s perfect for fedges, willow tunnels, living structures, and wreath-making.
We’ll be selling stock on our website this year: long lengths for structures, plus 18-inch lengths for starting your own plantation. Nature really is the teacher.

13/08/2026

Nearly a million people last year said work caused or worsened their stress, anxiety or depression. Behind every one of those numbers is a person who maybe stopped feeling like themselves. We see something different happen out here. People arrive carrying a lot, and something shifts. We’re opening the gates to local employers for two afternoons: a tour, lunch, and a conversation about how your business and this farm could work together. Thursday 20th & 27th August, 12:30–2pm. 12 places each. Come and stand in it, that’s the best way to understand
https://burscoughcommunityfarm.org/meet-the-farm/

07/08/2026

Workplace sickness costs the UK economy around £103 billion a year — and most of it traces back to stress, burnout and people quietly running on empty. It doesn’t have to be this way. We’re inviting local business owners to spend an afternoon with us at Burscough Community Farm: a guided tour, lunch, and a real conversation about how we could work together. Thursday 20th & 27th August, 12:30–2pm. Just 12 places per date. If you run a small business in the North West, come and see what we do. Link below.
https://burscoughcommunityfarm.org/meet-the-farm/
Lancashire TeamWellbeing CommunityFarm WellbeingAtWork NorthWest

25/07/2026

Every workplace says it wants resilient people — so it runs a resilience workshop. The research is quietly brutal about this: that’s not how resilience is built.

I’m Neil Hickson, Burscough Community Farm. A government evidence review on children and nature makes a point that holds at every age: resilience isn’t taught by instruction — it develops when someone meets a manageable challenge, takes a controlled risk, and discovers they can cope. A child balancing on a log learns more than one told to ‘be careful.’

We’ve built workplaces that remove every log, then wonder why people are fragile under pressure. On the farm we put the logs back — real tasks with a real edge — and people surprise themselves. That surprise is the raw material of resilience. There’s no slide for it.

Want people who bend instead of break? Let’s talk.

Sources:
Alla & Truong (2024), Nature play and child wellbeing — AIFS (risk & resilience): https://aifs.gov.au/resources/policy-and-practice-papers/nature-play-and-child-wellbeing
Brussoni et al. (2015), risky outdoor play & health — systematic review: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4483710/

17/07/2026

If you grew up mostly indoors, this might explain why you can’t switch off as an adult. Researchers say ours is the most indoor generation in history — and the early years are when you learn, in your body, that nature can calm you. If you never really got that as a kid, no wonder rest feels hard. That’s not a flaw in you, it’s a gap in what you were given. I’m Neil from Burscough Community Farm, and I see adults rediscover this all the time. You can still learn it: ten minutes outside today, no phone. Just notice.

Sources:
Nature play and child wellbeing — AIFS (2024): https://aifs.gov.au/resources/policy-and-practice-papers/nature-play-and-child-wellbeing

14/07/2026

Is one word getting in the way?

At the farm, we’ve always talked about “volunteering” — but I’ve started to wonder if that word is quietly putting people off before they ever set foot on the field.

When I say volunteering, I mean: come along, do what you feel like. Stay an hour or stay four. Dig a ditch, sow some seeds, or just sit and do a bit of craft. No rota. No commitment. No guilt about missing a week. You do as much as you want, and you leave with a clearer head, a bit of a workout, and some community.

But that’s not what the word means to everyone. To a lot of people, “volunteering” sounds like work — something you sign up for and feel bad about skipping. And a comment on social media made me realise this might be exactly why we see more people midweek than on a Saturday.

So I want to change the conversation, and I need your help. Two questions, and I’m reading every reply:

1. When I say “volunteering,” what does that word mean to you? Be honest.
2. What should we call it instead? Farm sessions? Outdoor sessions? Wellbeing sessions? Something we haven’t thought of?

Because it was never really about work or commitment. It was always just a few hours on the land, out in nature, doing what you can and feeling better for it.

Tell me what you’d call it. The best suggestion might just become the new name.

GreenSocialPrescribing

13/07/2026

There’s now a clinical term for getting your hands in the soil: ‘social and therapeutic horticulture’ — and it’s recognised as a green social prescribing modality, linked directly to NHS frameworks (Chartered Institute of Horticulture, 2026). Peer-reviewed research has found therapeutic community gardening improves wellbeing, sense of meaning, self-worth and social connectedness for people experiencing mental ill health (PMC / NIH).

I’m Neil from Burscough Community Farm. None of this surprised me — I’ve watched it for 12 years. When you tend something growing, your attention has somewhere gentle to rest, the churn quiets, and you’re useful and outside without performing for anyone.

The thing that helps may be simpler and cheaper than you’ve been told. Soil, a small task, a bit of time. We’ve got all three — open sessions Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday.

Nature is the teacher. The farm is the therapy.

Sources:
Chartered Institute of Horticulture — Social & Therapeutic Horticulture: https://www.horticulture.org.uk/sth-green-social-prescribing/
PMC / NIH — Therapeutic Community Gardening as Green Social Prescription: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9603302/