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Wednesday 10am - 4pm Thursday 10am - 4pm Friday 10am - 4pm

Orchard Barn Environmental Education Centre

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Orchard Barn Environmental Education Centre

Nature based traditional skills hub. Learning from the past - building a greener future at www.orchardbarn.org.uk. Environmental Education Centre

08/10/2026

From Waste to Wonderful – Compost course - led by Master Composter Emmie at Orchard Barn (FREE to attend, but please pre-book)

Autumn is a lovely time for transformation at Orchard Barn. As we scythe the old orchard, the final cuttings of the year will join w**ds, garden waste and other organic material to make our last compost heap of 2026.

Composting is recycling at its simplest – and perhaps its most magical. What appears to be finished becomes the beginning of something new: rich, dark, crumbly compost, full of life, feeding the countless organisms beneath our feet and helping our soil retain precious moisture.

With summers becoming increasingly dry, this matters more than ever. At Orchard Barn we harvest rainwater and use it carefully for our gardens and earth building. Compost-rich soil helps us make every drop count, keeping plants healthier through dry spells.

Fancy getting your hands into a little autumn magic?

Come and join us for an informal, hands-on Compost Making Session on Thursday 22 October, 10am–1pm. Learn by doing, share ideas and discover how garden waste can become one of our most valuable resources.

And if you'd like to get involved more regularly, our volunteers are always welcome:

Wednesdays and Fridays, 9am–1pm: Traditional carpentry and greenwood work

Thursdays, 9am–1pm: Orchard, garden and wildlife care

Interested in joining us? Please get in touch with Sarah on 07766 054042 or email [email protected].

Orchard Barn, IP14 2LY – on the far south-west side of Battisford.

Come and be part of the transformation!

27/08/2026

Giving these ancient timbers new life as a staircase. Extra volunteer help needed. 9-1 Wednesdays and Fridays. Project managed by William (timber framer with 40 years experience). Contact us if you can help.

16/08/2026

Fantastic turnout of over 150 yesterday for our Celebration of Orchard Life. Thank you to all of you who came, and the many who made OBee CIC’s 19th birthday one to remember! To Clare and Cara for showing how to start a Rag Rug, to Emmie for leading the Wattle and Daub bird box making, to Greg for the cleaving demo, William for showing how the solid tread staircase progresses, Chris, David, Pippa for leading the way with two person sawing, Bobby for tool sharpening and support with the new bee project, Kate for the Mending Table, Dee and Jos for helping her set up, Caryl and Pippa for baking orchard cake and making/serving fab homegrown mint tea, Philip for showing cleft ballystrading, Wendy and Mel for perfect parking, JP and Ben for premier of our new play Sticks, sacks and the Ringshall Tithe War (available soon on leaflet form), JP for nettle stick demo, to Brian for holding the space for timber framing/repairs, and to all you lovely folk, old and new who poured in and made it a perfect afternoon, and to anyone I’ve missed, thank you. Big thanks for your many cash donations to our crowdfunder. And there’s still a day to go if you’d like to support the campaign - it helps us to provide practical earth-building workshops- Aviva Community Fund will match yr donation:) Hooray for us all!

13/08/2026

Today looks like being another hot one, so we’re starting early with preparations for our Celebration of Orchard Life, 2–5pm this Saturday.

The forecast suggests we may even get some rain — and after all this dry weather, we’ll be celebrating that too! And no need to worry: we have plenty of undercover spaces.

From 2–3ish, come and see how to mend your own clothes, start a rag rug, cleave locally grown coppiced sweet chestnut, or have a go with a two-person saw.

While you’re in the Main Barn, look up at our hand-cut roof frame: trees from neighbouring Battisford, sawn lengthways by hand by 22 students during four courses in 2010. A lot of skills learnt — along with camaraderie and considerable muscle development!

We're also delighted to have completed the 22,000 handmade shingle roof of the Long House and whilst we have quite finished the timber frame replacement for the scaffolding and staircase, it's not far off (new volunteers welcome for this final push to complete and raise that!)

At 3.15pm, our new play brings to life the story of the two brothers who lived in the Long House around 100 years ago, followed at 3.45pm by a guided tour.

And afterwards? Home-grown mint tea, made with potable water we’ve carried in and boiled using 100% solar energy.

So yes, it may rain. We rather hope it does. And there’ll still be plenty to see, do, learn and celebrate. We hope to see you then.

09/08/2026

🌿 6 Days to Go – The Long House

At first glance, it looks like an old building.

But the Long House tells a much bigger story.

Over the last ten years, more than 1,000 volunteers and trainees have helped to bring this 1580 timber-framed home back to life, learning traditional skills and rediscovering the beauty of building with earth, timber, straw and lime.

Every beam, every wall and every floor carries the fingerprints of the people who came here to learn, to volunteer and to help.

The reinstated Long House isn't a museum. It's a place where old skills are inspiring new ideas for living more gently on our planet.

We hope you can join us at our Celebration of Orchard Life 2-5pm on Saturday 15th August and enjoy a guided tour (3.45) of this remarkable building and the stories it has to tell.

🌿 Learning from the past to build a greener future.

06/08/2026

🌿 12 Days of Orchard Life – Day 3
Meet the Earth Dragon

What do you do with clay dug on site, straw from your neighbour's field, local flint, reclaimed oak timbers and a healthy dose of imagination?

You build an Earth Dragon.

She now rests quietly beneath the Elder and Bullace trees at Orchard Barn, but she's far more than a sculpture.

Her body is made from earth, her neck from local flint, and along her back we've set oak timbers from the original 1580 Long House – a quiet reminder of the crafts-people who shaped this place over 440 years ago. Hidden within her are little bug hotels, and over time we'll encourage ivy to weave its way across her back so that she gradually emerges from the landscape, as though she's always belonged here.

The Earth Dragon was built by children, families and volunteers learning together. There were muddy hands, aching muscles, plenty of laughter and a wonderful sense of shared achievement. That's one of the joys of building with earth – everyone can join in, and every pair of hands leaves its mark.

Perhaps that's why she has already become part of Orchard Barn's story.

Come and meet her for yourself at our Celebration of Orchard Life on Saturday 15th August, 2–5pm. We'd love to introduce you.

🌿 Learning from the past to build a greener future.

Footnote: This image has been stitched together from several photographs. Earth Dragons are rather large creatures and have an unfortunate habit of refusing to fit neatly into camera frames.

05/08/2026

🌿 12 Days of Orchard Life – Day 2
Never underestimate a nettle...
One of the plants I love most at Orchard Barn is one that many people spend their lives trying to get rid of.
The humble stinging nettle.
Every spring I look forward to making my first saucepan of nettle soup. Those bright green young shoots are packed with goodness and taste wonderfully fresh after a long winter.
But nettles have so much more to offer.
When we cut them back—rather like coppicing a tree—they respond by producing fresh, tender new growth. That's why you'll often find us harvesting young nettles throughout the summer, rather than only in spring.
Then there's the stems that can become something quite magical.
JP will be demonstrating how to strip the fibres and twist them into surprisingly strong nettle string (from 2-3pm) during our Celebration of Orchard Life. It's one of those ancient skills that makes you see an everyday plant with completely new eyes.
At this time of year the nettles are flowering. Did you know there are male and female plants? The female plants produce long, graceful tassels of seed, and those seeds are considered something of a super-food—rich in minerals and traditionally valued as an energy-boosting autumn tonic.
One plant.
Soup.
String.
Wildlife habitat.
Compost.
Medicine.
Food.
Nature rarely produces something with just one purpose.
Perhaps the nettle isn't a w**d after all—perhaps it's one of our greatest teachers.
🌿 Come and discover the many gifts of the nettle with JP on Saturday 15th August at our Celebration of Orchard Life. We'd love to share this remarkable plant with you.

04/08/2026

🌿 12 Days of Orchard Life – Day 1
Finding Orchard Barn

Nineteen years ago, when we founded OBee CIC, our ambition was simple: to create a place where people could learn about the environment, our built heritage and the importance of community.

What we actually found was... a jungle!

Somewhere beneath twenty-foot-high brambles, self-seeded trees and what we affectionately came to call "structural ivy" was a derelict 1790 timber-framed barn. You couldn't walk around it, let alone see it properly. The old farmyard was complete with a mountain of farm yard manure AND an old muck spreader (we filled the muck spreader with the muck and grew beans in it).

So we didn't arrive with machinery. We arrived with loppers, bow saws, secateurs, determination and a sense of adventure.

For the first year we worked entirely by hand, slowly uncovering what had been lost. Every branch and bramble was chopped and composted, creating enormous heaps that would later transform Suffolk clay into fertile soil for our community vegetable garden.

As the brambles were slowly dug out, the orchard began to reveal itself. Ancient greengages appeared, followed by forgotten apple trees. One old standard apple tree announced itself with a single forlorn branch waving above the canopy, quietly saying, "I'm still here."

Not everything was cleared. We deliberately left a large area of scrub in what we call the Deep South, recognising it as valuable habitat for wildlife. I've often found myself defending it from those who wanted to "tidy it up". Why are we so keen to tame nature? Perhaps that's a story for another day...

As we uncovered the old farmyard, we found treasures everywhere: hand-forged hinges, blacksmith-made chains, worn horse harness, rusty implements, even the soles of old working boots. Each one spoke of the people who had lived and worked here long before us.

Looking back, we weren't just restoring a building.

We were uncovering a story.

And that story is still unfolding.

🌿 Join us on Saturday 15th August, 2–5pm, for our Celebration of Orchard Life, as we celebrate 19 years of discovering, restoring and sharing this remarkable place.

17/07/2026

Time to get to know your nettles - nettle string workshop at Orchard Barn tomorrow 10.30-12.30 Saturday 18th July

Address

Orchard Barn, Bildeston Road
Stowmarket
IP142LY

Opening Hours

Wednesday	10am - 4pm
Thursday	10am - 4pm
Friday	10am - 4pm

Telephone

+447766054042

Website

http://www.orchardbarn.org.uk/

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