Together for Good: SBF GB&I Community Fund has provided £1,310 of match funding
Community Led Heritage Skills Hub
Mitcheldean, Gloucestershire, United Kingdom
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Your donation unlocks match funding
Aim
To create a community learning space for practical training in sustainable building, retrofit skills and ecological restoration.
Restore a Forest of Dean Farmhouse & Train Future Craftspeople
We are taking on the long-term lease of a historic derelict farmhouse and outbuildings in the Forest of Dean. Empty for more than 10 years and surrounded by woodland, the farmhouse is full of original features and offers a rare opportunity for people to learn directly from a traditional building while helping bring it back into use.
Led by award winning training providers CarringtonLIME Heritage Skills training, our vision is to transform the site into a living training ground where restoration and learning happen side by side. Rather than a traditional classroom, the entire site will become a hands-on learning environment where every stage of the restoration provides real opportunities to gain practical skills.
Participants will be able to learn a wide range of heritage construction and land-based skills, including:
- Lime plastering and natural insulation
- Timber framing and traditional carpentry
- Dry stone walling, traditional brickwork and traditional boundary work
- Plumbing, windows and building services
- External wall insulation and retrofit for older buildings
- Land regeneration and hedgerow restoration
- Wildlife management and habitat protection, including bats
We will also demonstrate practical ways to retrofit older homes cost-effectively using natural and breathable materials. By sharing these skills and approaches, we aim to make retrofit more accessible and achievable for everyone. We believe everyone deserves to live in a warm, dry and energy-efficient home.
We will work with local colleges, volunteers and our own students to create ongoing opportunities for people who want to enter the heritage, construction and land-based industries. By restoring the farmhouse using traditional and natural materials, the project will demonstrate how historic buildings can become healthy, low-energy homes while protecting the character of our built heritage. The surrounding land will also be carefully managed to support biodiversity, creating a place where people, craft skills and nature can thrive together.
Funds raised will help us begin the restoration and prepare the site so we can welcome our first students and volunteers later in 2026. This includes essential early works to make the buildings safe and accessible for learning, as well as providing tools, materials, insurance and training infrastructure so that learners can take part.
Participants will also be invited to join The Heritage Skills Exchange, our community learning network where people share knowledge, exchange time and skills, and support one another in improving their homes. Your donation helps create opportunities for neighbours to work together, reducing costs and strengthening community resilience.
Together we can bring this long-empty farmhouse back to life and create an inspiring place where our community can learn, share skills and work in harmony with nature.
Every donation will make a real difference — and thanks to match funding, every pound you give will be doubled.
To show how your support can help, here are some examples of what donations could contribute towards:
- £10 could help us build a bat hotel for the resident Lesser Horseshoe bats.
- £25 could go towards connecting electricity to the workshop spaces.
- £50 could help create a low-impact parking area so we’re ready to welcome volunteers and students.
- £100 could support our investment in renewable energy on site.
Together, these contributions will help us create a thriving, sustainable space for learning, wildlife, and community.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made by 21st August 2026 at 2:19pm