Always on
This project successfully funded on 31st October 2025, you can still support them with a donation.
Save Thornes Garden Nursery: 50K Community Fund
Letchworth Garden City, Hertfordshire, United Kingdom
Aim
Save Thornes: Help raise £50k to clear debts, rehire staff & build a community green hub with forestry school, allotments & off-grid energy.
Saving Thornes Is Preserving Nature
Help us evolve in a direction so that we can give back.
We can't do this without your help.
Our vision is to become a community invested corporation, one that gives back more than it takes.
A place that fosters education through a forestry school, unites communities on shared allotments, and provides sanctuary not just for people, but for hens and hedgehogs too. We have the plans; what we need is the support to turn dreams into reality.
The Following Is Quite A Read. A Lot Of Time & Effort Has Gone Into The Creation Of This, With Multiple Versions Made & More Detail To Go Online On Our Website. We're A Team Of 3 At The Moment. I hope you enjoy the read. Thank you in advance - Daniel
The Struggle
The past few months have been brutal. It’s been the most unrelenting year in the history of Thornes.
It’s now at the point where giving our all won’t cut it. Constant setbacks and battles have left us running on empty. Passion remains strong, but people’s power is stronger. That’s what we need now.
This year began with optimism, but survival quickly became the only goal. With time slipping away and the clock ticking louder, we often catch ourselves wondering if it’s all some kind of cruel joke. We’d love to laugh, but when something like the odour nuisance has devastated our trade in ways we simply cannot counter alone… What exactly are we supposed to do?
When it comes to that odour nuisance, the impact has been catastrophic. We are now faced with the very real prospect of not existing at all. We’ve explored every avenue, knocked on every official door, but all the “solutions” stretch a year or more — a luxury we no longer have.
Worse still, those who should be listening choose to look the other way, dismissing the data we’ve gathered. And yet, the burden still falls on us to prove what is already lived reality: that this nuisance destroys not just our trade, but community lives as well.
Let's Go Back & See How The Year Started.
2025 has been chaos from the start. The odour crisis (worst since 2016!) set the tone of the year. Unfortunately, it was only the start of a long-lasting downward spiral of daisy-chained struggles. The knock-on effects resulted in more pressures and debts piling higher.
We've reduced our team size, slashed expenses, and sacrificed wherever possible, but it’s still not enough.
Pressure without pause. Sacrifices made to survive another season. And still, our hearts remain steadfast.
We Are Not Quitters.
And neither is the community that stands with us in supports.
Our dreams of becoming a community hub can become a reality. We're simply too stubborn to succumb to the negativity of today, too focused on bringing people together. Together we can make it happen.
It brightens our day when we see others share the vision we have too and want this dream of ours to become a reality.
On Top Of The Support, There's Too Much History To Simply Let Go
Standing strong for 24 years, Thornes has weathered storms. In 2016, faced with the brutality of the odour crisis back then, a selfless act was made. Karl sacrificed his pension to fuel his passion and maintain the survival of Thornes, bringing almost another decade of life to the land. Thornes has nearly had a quarter of a century of stunning plants, beautiful evenings, and bringing people together.
Being so close to the 25th Anniversary of Thornes, we’re closer than ever to losing it all. We still have the fighting spirit within us to keep going. Why stop now? To give up now would be to surrender this green space to concrete and corporations, when what we want is to see it grow as a green space for people and nature.
This time round, under the weight of mounting challenges, without a pension to act saviour. We might not make it...
We need help to get through this battle. Help restore Thornes back to where it was. We know we can, but we need to band together to make it possible.
Some days it feels like standing in quicksand, clinging to something that keeps slipping away. And yet, somehow, we’re still here.
It's certainly been a journey. Destination dreams of a greener tomorrow, but uncertainty paints a blurred picture.
We’ve known what it is to be paralysed by fear and drained by constant worry. We’ve hidden the weight from others, masking the struggle, pretending all is fine. But it isn’t.
When we check in with reality, it really isn't OK. The truth is, silencing our battles has taken its toll.
There's been nights without food, because at least sleep costs nothing. Winter without heating in a house that holds no warmth, and another cold season already looming - history is set to repeat itself. Long hours where sleep was stolen, sacrificed to endless work just to keep things moving forward. We know it isn’t healthy. We know it leaves scars. But under relentless pressure, requiring ways to cut costs, sacrifice has felt like the only way.
Our hearts remain in the core of everything we do, even when it feels impossible. We are so determined to make Thornes into the community hub driven by the community.
We were faced with demoralising checkpoints that we couldn't avoid. As winter was ending and spring was arriving, we found ourselves with a common conversation line.
We endured many demoralising moments: sharpened smiles, laced with gleeful sorrow. Commonly, a viperous double strike, hidden behind casual chatter. The first jab came as the question we heard too often: "Are you closing?" A question we understood, yet too often delivered with venom by ghosts "just having a look," mocking our struggle as they laughed at our path. The second was rarely spoken outright but always implied. A cruel faux pas, a whisper beneath the words: "Give up already."
Remarks made to hurt, and they truly did. At the peak of experiencing such dual-edged interactions, we had no plans of closing. We now face ourselves with that being a possibility. It's a shame to think we'd be here.
We want to stay. We want to give back.
How will helping us help the community?
Because the future we see is one where Thornes belongs to all of us — as an allotment, a school, a sanctuary, a hub. With your help we can continue to help more local businesses get a name for themselves and get their products out there like with the businesses we currently support:
We’re asking you to stand with us. Please support today.
What's our plan for the road ahead?
Please support us today. Whether it’s giving a little or a lot, or even just sharing our cause, every act of support helps bring us closer to a greener tomorrow.
- 10K By 29th Sep Secures The Future Without Issues
- 50K By 31st Oct Enables Our Future Vision To Be Implemented This Year
- Stretch Goals Will Happen To 100K All To Enable A Brighter Future Of Tomorrow, Today.
Excess funds (100K+ or Unspent) will then go into community projects. We're not after profits, just a green space that gives back. The type of giving back that goes beyond the confinements of Thornes. Community is what matters most to us, we want to be able to support ours once we've gained stability once again
Karl the owner, myself - Daniel, and our weekend café front of house Chloe are all that remain on the staff roster. Let's improve that, the garden nursery & how we better the surrounding community.
From the bottom of my heart, from Karl’s, and from everyone who shares this vision for the future of Thornes
Thank you. We are stronger together.
#SaveThornes
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made