Wild Banks at Honey Hope Farm

Aim

Restoring our farm after Storm Babet took it all

We started this campaign with such joy and hope, you can see our original mission at the bottom of this page.
What happened next is very much linked to the environmental crisis we as a world are facing. We have never experienced rainfall like we had in Derbyshire last week. For us at Honey Hope, it has highlighted the need for us to invest in our storm and habitat defense's and to get on with the work of improving our flood diversion. Although even that was some several feet under water. 

Storm Babet was set to be a 'source of concern' for us in the East Midlands. What she actually was, felt like a near apocalyptic devastation to people who for the most part, don't see a great deal of flooding or environmental impact from our weather fronts.  

This was a moment in time we knew things would get difficult.

Our Farm was set up for a weekend of fun on Friday the 20th October. We announced a cancellation of our mens circle that evening, and within 2 hours our entire future had changed.

Deciding to cancel Men's circle, Still having no idea what lay ahead.

Two hours later, the storm water flooded everything, the stables, the gardens, the allotment, and had cut off all dry land for the sheep, goats and horses in two of our paddocks. We found the sheep in the top paddock with a 10 ft by 5 ft strip of land. They were so frightened we struggled to load them into a van to remove them fearing they would run headfirst to the storm water.

 When we returned to the main farm, water was everywhere. we knew we were in trouble.

Having worked all day to get to safety anything and everything we could, we knew we had lost a lot, the event equipment and kitchen that had been set out, was no where to be seen, and the bell tent looked like it was leaving, We have only found the ground sheet not the tent. The outdoor kitchen items have not yet been found. Despite our best efforts reaching the bee hives was too dangerous and we had to watch as they were washed away. 

So clean up begins, we are still not sure of the extent of the loss, many things wont be accounted for until we are able to get into the barn and stables, and things start to dry out.
But the damage is extensive and we are now left trying to put back together things we've spent 4 years building on this site so we are ready to move onto the stage we were at a few weeks ago, that story you can read below.

We desperately need your help, to put this facility back on its feet, and to save the habitats and homes of the animals we call residents as well as supporting the peoples who's lives have been affected by the loss of their safe place.

Please pledge to help this project back on its feet, our community of all species needs us.

Our known losses include:

2 bee hives with frames of honey and colonies.
Rare breed chickens Derbyshire Redcaps(2)
Rare breed ducks Standbridge white (1)

As well as our bushcraft equipment, duck housing, bell tent. Much more is yet to be accounted for.
We have also lost animal bedding, animal feed, haylage and other bits of equipment which didn't stand up to the mammoth clean up task .

Original plan:
Honey Hope Farm is a supportive space for mental wellbeing and nature connection in semi rural Derbyshire.
Run as a peer support center all our staff have lived experience of mental health conditions and recovery.
All our staff are qualified peer support facilitators, and mental health first aiders. The farm is supported by The School of Social Entrepreneurs where our founder Bridget is a double fellow. Social Farms and Gardens, who recently awarded us a Green Care Quality Mark. And Derbyshire Wildlife Trust who have been instrumental in helping us develop this project.
We have a number of other wonderful organisations involved but naming them all here we would never break ground!

 Honey Hope dedicate their land to the support of people across the county, from young people struggling with their mental wellbeing, to careers and adults who are living with long term health conditions. and everyone in between. everyone is welcome at Honey Hope.

We are lucky to have an amazing team of staff, service users, trustees and community connections, and some grand members of the farm, including a one horned unigoat and some very rare breed poultry and ducks adding to our heritage focus.

When we are not chilling with the animals, playing field archery or working the farm, we can usually be found in the bushcraft school planning our next project. What is certain though, is no two days are the same on the farm. Innovative projects and a good sense of humor collide to make  this a very special place.
We have grown our groups and activities over the past three years to include some incredible projects. And now we are turning our focus to heritage support of the land and residents.
We have for years been learning our land in a bid to understand who lives here, and how we share space. We know we have some interesting protected residents. Including a pair of king fishers. A young heron, buzzards, bats, grass snakes, several varieties of dragon fly and common smooth and crested newts.
We also have evidence that the pasture was the site of ancient woodland with some interesting (sadly toxic) dog mercury, amongst other woodland and wild flowers.
It has been an amazing learning journey to realise just how much wildlife we actually have around us, and what seems to be lacking or struggling.

Now we have the 'lay of the land' we are ready to move onto a project that has been planned for a long time.
  The project was raised by our group members who work the land and understand what is 'wrong' on the flood plain. and together we have identified that:

• Our largest paddock has an over flow running through it which has long been neglected, and no longer flows.
•  We have invasive balsam taking over the brook banks and strangling out native plant and grass species. 
• The paddocks are poor grazing that floods and native non toxic plants struggle. 
• The water way is polluted with washed down junk from further upstream. 
• The flora that naturally grows in our farmland is of poor quality and some is toxic to the resident animals.
• Many of the trees that line the pasture are dead, dying or diseased.
• There are not enough safe nesting sites for birds or coverage for small mammals such as hares or rabbits which we know frequent the locality but not our farm. 
• The brook bank is at risk of erosion due to the lack of deep rooted plants and trees.  

So a plan has been born and clearance work is beginning to create some exciting solutions:

• Reinstating the brook over flow with natural damming techniques. creating small pools for wildlife  breeding and a safe drainage when the land is flooding. 
• Protecting the breeding pools by planting and maintaining a bird friendly hedge line of water loving trees and shrubs, which will improve the pasture drainage.
• Removal of the invasive balsam and plants, and replacing with marsh / woodland/ native wild flowers. 
• Removal of the dead and sick trees, replacing with wet loving bird friendly native trees and a variety of native fruit trees. 
• Creation of a Scrape, a natural shallow seasonal  pond capable of supporting wildlife and assisting the drainage of the meadow.
• Creating a small orchard and apiary.
• Creating and installing bat boxes, nesting boxes and appropriate hibernation homes  for our local wildlife. 
• Repairing dry stone wall.
• Continuing the enrichment of our pasture and wild meadow, offsetting community carbon and giving us good hay to cut and use for our animals, reducing our own carbon footprint.
  
  This is an ambitious project but an exciting one. We need your support both financial and by welcoming you as a project volunteer to achieve this goal and we hope to celebrate the success of this project with a big community event.
  When pledging and volunteering for this project please please stay in touch as we will be giving updates regularly.

This project successfully funded on 20th November 2023