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Roots CIC

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A social forestry community managing woodlands for biodiversity in West Sussex We are ROOTS, an outdoor community for West Sussex, created in Storrington.

We are here to share our passion for the outdoors. We aim to ENABLE people of all ages to connect with nature. We want to bring people together to learn traditional skills and crafts, cook and eat around a fire, explore and learn about our local environment, climb trees, sleep under the stars, and create bonds with one another and with the land. We want to EMPOWER young people to connect with and care for the environment, learn and share skills that help develop entrepreneurship and build self-esteem, and grow through shared experiences and connections. We hope to SERVE our local community with education, events, activities and celebrations that bring people together in the outdoors. Afternoon in the Woods/Bushcraft/Tree climbing/Creating and Making/Weekends Off-Grid/Community Litter-Picking/Seasonal Celebrations/Gatherings Round The Fire

28/10/2026

‘Why is Karl’s bonfire twice as big as mine??’

We don’t really like to burn in the woods but, having delayed the processing of brash for various reasons including nesting birds (so it was a joy to find a birds nest in amongst the piles) we have no other way of clearing the site so

If we have to burn, we might as well enjoy it!

Thank you to the Roots gang for coming along at the last minute after stormy weather stopped play twice last week.

26/10/2026

Last-minute session at the Wiston Estate this Wednesday, and news about our latest grant from Sussex Community Foundation 🎉

Bad weather has stopped play lately and our site at the Wiston Estate is still in need of a final clear. Therefore we have scheduled a last-minute brash-burning and clearing session this coming WEDNESDAY OCTOBER 28.

We very much hope some of you can make it - please email us [email protected] if you can come along.

In other news, the Sussex Community Foundation has awarded us a grant for our Ashington project!

Although we’re funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Wiston Estate for our project at Wiston with Making It Out our Ashington site has been unfunded until now.

We ran the first season at our much-loved pilot site in Ashington on the kindness of the landowners and generous donations from family. We asked for donations to Roots instead of gifts when we got married and our family kindly gave enough to get us up and running for our first season - back when we were hauling a few bow-saws, a tiny fire pit, our First Aid kit, a bag of food and a far-too-shiny kettle into the woods in a Mini Clubman. We weren’t able to be paid for our time but we could supply tools and training, food and drink, and we chose to put our faith in our philosophy of ‘if we build it, they will come’.

We have always had faith that what we have created with Roots is worth the investment, and we have led by example by investing whatever we can to keep the sessions going and by relying on the similar investment and good faith of the Roots community and kind individuals in the local area (Gina, we still can’t thank you enough for the first ever original and unforgettable Rootsmobile).

We are absolutely over the moon that all of this investment has been recognised and rewarded, and the Sussex Community Foundation’s Nino fund has chosen to award funding to Roots to keep Ashington running for another season.

Head to https://rootswestsussex.substack.com/p/if-we-burn-you-burn-with-us to read the full post & find out how you can support us on our Substack!

23/10/2026

SATURDAY OCT 24 SESSION CANCELLED due to high winds.

Stay home, watch Jurassic Park, light the log burner - and if you need any kindling, email us [email protected]

21/10/2026

TWO VERY IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS

1. Our planned session at Trickles Wood was halted by stormy conditions and wind gusts of 41mph.

This means we will instead hold our session this coming Saturday, October 24 at Trickles Wood on the WISTON ESTATE instead of at the barn, as advertised.

Email us [email protected] if you’d like to come along.

2. This also means that we have kicked off our Community Supported Firewood scheme with our first session processing firewood and kindling at our barn on the Wiston Estate.

The bulk of the day was spent cutting and processing the smaller hazel for hardwood kindling, and by the end of the day we had this glorious offering fully prepared - an oil drum packed full of seasoned, ready-to-go kindling.

This is not, we hasten to add, just any kindling.

It’s not even M&S kindling either.

It’s kindling sustainably sourced from woodlands managed by the community, for biodiversity.

It has been hand-cut (no nasty emissions) by a dedicated community fuelled by tea, biscuits, dinner round the fire and all-round great chats.

It has been transported the whopping sum of ONE WHOLE MILE to our barn on the Wiston Estate, where it has been fully seasoned.

It has then been processed and split, again by hand, with the pleasant drift of woodsmoke in the background, and stacked ready to go.

(Compare that to your average plastic bag full of sweaty Amazon rainforest treated with flame retardant, flown halfway across the world, then treated again with flame accelerant, for the bargain price of £12)

Also, ours looks much nicer, don’t you think?

We will supply our kindling not in plastic bags or netting but in W**E BOXES sourced from local hostelries.

So not only can you get your log burner going with our kindling, but you can also use the box as tinder/recycle it/bring it back and fill it up with kindling again.

Hurrah!

SUSSEX COPPICE KINDLING: £8 per box

Grab yours now by emailing us [email protected]

Full post on https://rootswestsussex.substack.com/

20/10/2026

Who is coming to the woods with us tomorrow for our last session at Trickles Wood on the beautiful Wiston Estate?

(Don’t panic! We’re moving to another site at Wiston following tomorrow’s ceremonial burning)

As per last week our priority is clearing the brash still on the ground. Last week we had some impressive infernos. This week rain is forecast, so it’ll be a challenge of everybody’s pyromaniac skills to get the fires going.

Email us [email protected] if you’re coming - dinner is coconut and spinach dhal, you won’t want to miss it! And if you were with us last week - don’t forget your plate!

We’re kindly funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and the Wiston Estate for our Wiston project with Making It Out

15/10/2026

A lovely day harvesting stakes for our upcoming hedgelaying work for our friends at Weald to Waves

Three quarters of the day was spent working a typical steep and cumbersome Sussex bank, the remaining couple of hours in the most beautiful flat coppice with some of the oldest and most striking hazel stools we’ve worked with.

The resulting stakes will be stored over the winter ready for us to lay some 200m of mature, mixed species hedge on the same site, to form part of the Weald to Waves wildlife corridor from Ashdown Forest 🌳 to the sea 🌊 and to complement the planting of a new hedge for the super ecologically minded landowners.

A huge thank you to Weald to Waves for contracting us to lay three hedges this season - on top of our ongoing work on the hedge restoration and creation project, kindly funded by Southern Water

(and a big thank you to Weald to Waves and their members for backing our messy, site-specific, biodiversity-focused, non-competition-worthy conservation laying style)

Lots of love also to our friends at People’s Trust for Endangered Species | PTES for their championing, support and education around the importance of hedgelaying for biodiversity, habitat restoration, nature recovery and climate resilience.

biodiversity

Knepp Wildland Foundation

14/10/2026

DISCO INFERNO!!

A superb first session getting the band back together in the woods to finish clearing and burn brash 🔥🔥🔥

We’re back at the Wiston Estate next Wednesday for our final session here before moving to our new site on the estate ready for the 2026/27 coppicing season - our third season!

We're kindly funded by the The National Lottery Community Fund and Wiston Estate for our project at Wiston with Making It Out

04/10/2026

Ready to get back in the woods with us??

We’ve published dates for our 2026/27 season on our Substack!

We also have cool merch on offer.

Read all about it here: https://rootswestsussex.substack.com/p/lets-go-back-to-the-woods-shall-we

13/08/2026

Clearing Trickles Wood 🪵 In a heatwave 🥵

Exhausting, frustrating at times and deeply satisfying - culminating in piles of hazel stacked up at the barn looking like *something*, not just heaps on the woodland floor.

The work is full of memories of our amazing season at Wiston with upwards of 50 game souls from the ROOTS West Sussex CIC community, the Wiston Estate, Making It Out and our friends at Lost Woods Project

In these tinderbox conditions we’re working with a fire extinguisher & fire blanket on hand. Climate change means working practices have to adapt and change.

At the end of it all is a timber barn full of next season’s firewood. Beginning to end, start to finish, let’s just hope our newly Mediterranean climate cools down enough for any of us to need firewood!

Those crisp, cold, bracing mornings in the woods in winter when we all need the fire and a cup of tea feel a lifetime away. We miss them!

We’re kindly funded by The National Lottery Community Fund and Wiston Estate for our Wiston project with Making It Out

Address

Storrington

Telephone

+447742584956

Website

facebook.com

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