Burscough Community Farm CIC

07/06/2026

As small scale market gardeners, we’ve collected special tools that work with our scale of growing food. The broadfork is one of those tools. It’s great for breaking up hard, ‘panned’ soil that people have been walking over during the winter months. 14 inch ‘tines’ establish drainage channels, and we follow it up by tilling just the top couple of inches of soil after we’ve put just a little compost on the surface to freshen things up. This is the back end of our classroom polytunnel with tomatoes, chilies and cape gooseberries.

02/06/2026

BCF in their team togs.

Did you know volunteers across West Lancashire support everything from community befriending and gardening projects to libraries, wellbeing groups and youth activities?
Groups such as Burscough Community Farm CIC rely on volunteers to help create welcoming spaces, support local people and strengthen community connections.
Even a few hours of your time can make a real difference to someone in your community.
If you're interested in volunteering locally, find opportunities and support here:
https://www.westlancs.gov.uk/more/your-community/volunteer.aspx
Find out more about Burscough Community Farm:
https://www.facebook.com/burscoughcommunityfarm/?locale=en_GB

02/06/2026

The polytunnel we recovered a few weeks ago has been planted out and will soon start producing.
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01/06/2026

Getting older isn’t a slow decline. We’ve just been told a story that says it is. 🌿

A new UK report on healthy ageing (May 2026) names a “deeply rooted cultural pessimism” about ageing — and warns of the damage it does. As one contributor said: “if we are told we can’t, then we won’t.”

But another expert offered a better word for later life: not decline — renaissance.

Frailty isn’t fixed. The body responds at any age.

I’m Neil from Burscough Community Farm — 12 years of watching people rewrite that story. Nature is the teacher, the farm is the therapy.

Source: Healthy Ageing: physical activity in an ageing society (HC 1180, 22 May 2026): https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/

30/05/2026

You don’t have to be sporty. You just have to move. 🌱

A new UK government report on healthy ageing (May 2026) backed what we’ve always believed: experts in it say we should tell people to “move, not exercise.” Gardening, walking, pottering — it all counts.

If “exercise” has always felt like a club you weren’t invited to, this is your permission slip.

I’m Neil from Burscough Community Farm — 12 years of helping people reconnect through nature. Nature is the teacher, the farm is the therapy.

Source: Healthy Ageing: physical activity in an ageing society, House of Commons Health and Social Care Committee (HC 1180, 22 May 2026): https://committees.parliament.uk/committee/81/health-and-social-care-committee/

21/05/2026

Two weeks ago, access to nature became a legal duty in England — and most people haven’t heard about it.
The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act received Royal Assent on 29 April 2026. Under the new legislation, Combined Authorities across England now have a statutory requirement to consider the health of people in their area — including the environment they live in, and the quality of green and blue space they can access. This isn’t guidance. It’s law.
I run Burscough Community Farm, an 8-acre off-grid community farm in West Lancashire where we use nature as a tool for health and wellbeing. For years, Green Social Prescribing has sat at the edges of the health system — valued by the people who experience it, but hard to embed in strategic planning. That’s changing.
This video is for anyone working in public health, social prescribing, community commissioning — or anyone who has felt that the case for nature-based health was being made on the margins rather than in the rooms where decisions get made.
📖 Further reading:
English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026 — Royal Assent announcement (GOV.UK): https://www.gov.uk/government/news/english-devolution-bill-receives-royal-assent
Official Act text and health duties: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2026/23/enacted
Government guidance on the new health improvement duty for Strategic Authorities: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/english-devolution-and-community-empowerment-bill-guidance/english-devolution-and-community-empowerment-bill-guidance
Nature and the Devolution Bill — Wildlife Trusts analysis: https://www.wildlifetrusts.org/blog/public-affairs/gap-where-nature-should-be-english-devolution-and-community-empowerment-bill

20/05/2026

We had a man who couldn’t come inside. So we sat with him outside. That was the session.

A doctoral thesis from the University of Helsinki found that health outcomes from nature programmes correlate more with how connected someone feels to the natural world than with how much time they actually spend outdoors.

It was never about where he was sitting. It was about whether he felt part of something. Whether the space felt safe. Whether someone stayed.

The farm doesn’t fix people. It gives them somewhere to be while something shifts. Sometimes that starts outside a door.

Source: Kolster, A. (2026) — Supporting health and wellbeing through nature-based interventions in primary care. Doctoral thesis, University of Helsinki.

17/05/2026

A major systematic review of nature-based interventions found that the most effective programmes last 8 to 12 weeks. Not a one-off session. Not a six-month commitment.

At Burscough Community Farm, our Reboot programme runs for 6 weeks, but you can attend two courses ‘back-to-back’ and/or start volunteering sessions. Our Revive to Thrive course runs for 12 weeks. We didn’t design them to match the research. The research caught up with what we already knew.

Week 1: quiet, uncertain, hands that don’t know what to do yet.
Week 3–4: the place stops feeling foreign.
Week 6: someone who barely spoke at the start reads their own writing out loud to strangers.

That’s not coincidence. That’s what time in nature actually does.

Source: Coventry et al. (2021) — Nature-based outdoor activities for mental and physical health: Systematic review and meta-analysis. SSM – Population Health. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8498096/

16/05/2026

Every Wednesday from 3rd June 2026, a small group of people will be arriving at Burscough Community Farm to spend four hours outdoors making things — and leaving with something they’re genuinely proud of.

Reboot Your Life is a free, six-week outdoor wellbeing course at Burscough Community Farm in West Lancashire. Sessions run 10am–2pm every Wednesday, starting 3rd June 2026.

What you’ll be doing: building tiny houses from natural materials, willow sculpture, working with clay, gel printing with plants, black and white nature photography, creative writing, planter making — and more. Every week is different. Every week you leave with something you made yourself.

It’s free, it’s outdoors, it’s low-pressure, and it’s designed for adults who’ve been feeling a bit stuck and could use a reset.

📍 Burscough Community Farm, Meadow Lane, Burscough, Ormskirk, L40 4BB
📅 Starts: Wednesday 3rd June 2026
⏰ 10:00am – 2:00pm each week
💷 Completely free

👉 Sign up here: https://burscoughcommunityfarm.org/reboot/

The course is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund, West Lancashire Borough Council, and the UK Government, in partnership with DWP JobCentre Plus.

15/05/2026

Nearly finished with our poly-tunnel re-skinning, so we will be putting our plants in pretty soon.