Brighton Permaculture Trust does not have a central base as such, but it feels like the heart of our organisation beats in Stanmer Park.
What we do at Stanmer Park
Stanmer Park is where many of our organisation’s activities take place: Apple Day Brighton, courses, orchard management, and permaculture gardening.
You won’t find any Brighton Permaculture Trust staff members in an office there – we all work from home – but you may find tutors teaching in Earthship Brighton, volunteers gardening in our plot, or Bryn pruning in Home Farm Orchard.
We manage three orchards at Stanmer Park, two of which were neglected orchards that we’ve restored. We are also planting a new orchard as well as new trees among the existing ones. These new trees comprise our national collection of Sussex apple varieties. Please feel free to visit them at any time (get directions).
We also have a plot where we apply permaculture principles to make the best use of the site. Our plot is a place where volunteers get stuck into growing and is also used as a resource for our courses.
Our partners at Stanmer
The plot and one of the orchards are part of Stanmer Organics, a group of projects working with the natural environment that provides access to educational and practical experience.
We have also been partners in the running of the Low Carbon Trust‘s Earthship Brighton since the project was conceived in 2002.
The future of our work at Stanmer
Last but not least, Stanmer Park is the home of our scrumping project, as we are building a new straw bale Fruit Factory to house it within an existing barn in Stanmer Village.