We are a small, newly established, co-housing community located in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, near the beautiful North Devon coast.
In June 2021, the community purchased Berry Park, a large Victorian house, set in 6 acres of land. The founding members came together with a shared vision to create an intentional community, wishing to live more in harmony with each other and with the natural environment. We are an intergenerational community who are passionate about growing organic food and working towards lower-impact living, whilst adapting to the challenges of our changing climate and ecology.
Since the start of the project 3 years ago, we have:
Left 2.5 acres of land that was previously baled for hay every year. This has done wonders for the small mammal population, particularly voles. As a result, we have many more predators visiting the land including Tawny Owls, Barn Owls, Kestrels (daily), Hedgehogs, Foxes and even Peregrine Falcons.
Planted a 70-metre native hedge from the Woodland Trust.
Erected 3 top-bar bee hives near to the pond area.
Started building a 28 metre diameter Mandala Garden using Devon banks including areas of drystone walling.
Installed 10 'no-dig, organic' - productive beds on our journey to becoming 70% self-sufficient.
Started planting-up a ¼ acre Forest Garden.
Planted 14 Orchard trees, 190 Hornbeam, 62 mixed-edibles and Hawthorn and 315 native hedge plants.
Separated the rainwater drainage from our extensive roofs and piped it down to directly feed the pond, year round.
Earlier this year we applied for funding from the 'Farming in Protected Landscapes Scheme' (FIPL), to install a 20 x 8 metre wildlife pond. We were lucky enough be be successful, and were awarded a grant of £7590 to undertake the project, which was completed in mid-September.
As we are a not-for-profit company and not farmers, we had the additional cost of obtaining planning permission in order to receive the grant. This also included an Ecology survey and Biodiversity Net Gain (BNG) calculations. These costs were not covered by the grant.
A lot of work has gone into getting the project underway due to the funding scheme finishing in April '25. Logistically, it would be impossible to dig in the winter, so we had a tiny window of opportunity before the weather turned. We also had some unforeseen bad weather half-way through the dig, which doubled the plant hire costs and labour - costs which again, were not covered by the grant.
The work is now complete and we are delighted with the results, as are the FIPL team, but our project funds have been depleted.
We are looking to crowdfund for the costs of the planning application to the local council ( £648), planning consultant fees (£332) and the extra cost of the plant hire due to the bad weather over running the project (£550) - A total of £1530.
Raising as much as we can of this total ensures we can keep taking on projects at The Berry Park Project, in order to increase biodiversity and enable us to share this beautiful place with the wider community.
Please support in any way you can.
Note, the photo shown is not Berry Park, but is how we envisage our pond will look , once its fully established. It's basically a muddy hole at this point, which is rapidly filling with rainwater!