November Archaeology at Donkey Lane Community Orchard

The last of our autumn sessions of archaeological digs at the Donkey Lane Community Orchard, Chinnor will be on 15th &16th November 2025, 10 am – 3:30 pm.

Anyone can join in; accompanied children are most welcome. No experience necessary. You will be guided by the experts from South Oxfordshire Archaeology Group.

You can join us for the whole weekend or just an hour or two. Old clothes and stout shoes are advisable.

To find us, head up Keen's Lane, Chinnor, OX39 4PF - cross the railway crossing - the Orchard’s directly on the right. To book a place email: greeningchinnor@gmail.com

Autumn Litter Pick

Donkey Lane Community Orchard Working Parties

It is not often we are lost for words but we have to confess to being completely speechless (almost) regarding the change that has already been made to the Community Orchard by the dedicated group of volunteers during the recent working parties.

Most of the fruit trees are clear of Ivy as far up as can been reached. We have probably cleared about 70% of our planned first stage. As we can now see the fruit trees properly, it is obvious that these are the trees in the original photographs standing in the garden of the cottages. Some of the trees are a bit wobbly (but then so would you be if you had been standing for 150 years).

Our objective is for every fruit tree to have it’s own 'Management Plan' with the first stage being to remove the Ivy and brambles and to provide support in the form of crucks. We have made a significant start on this. With respect to the underground den that was onsite, when we turned up for our first working party on Saturday 9th February, we found that some of the den’s supporting timbers had been removed and with the the recent spell of wet weather, the roof had collapsed. Later in the year we will have a small working party to ensure this area is made completely safe. The tree house is still standing. We carried out a structural survey and were disappointed to see that the floor is completely rotten and dangerous to use. To ensure the safety of our volunteers we removed  a few insecure timbers. A plan for the tree house will be made at our next meeting. The priority is to ensure that none of our children or grandchildren come to any harm from the structure and perhaps plan for a safe replacement that will give maximum, safe community enjoyment. Read more ...

Repair Cafe

We held our second Repair Café towards the end of November and are delighted that our dedicated team of fixers were able to either fix the broken item or gave valuable advice as to where to get parts.

In a couple of instances the fixer even took the item home to either make the missing part or carry out a longer repair. 

Between us over 70 kilos of repairs were carried out. Some of the items included:

A speaker, a CD/Stereo, a drill and charger, a coffee maker, a Kenwood mixer,  a desk fan, a wall clock, a solar light, toy railway pieces, a sports bag, 2 baby changing mats, a fleece, a coat, and an electronic baby toy.

This is a free service to the village and we only asked for a small donation towards the cost of the hall hire. Our intention is to run the next Repair Café in the spring and we will publicise it nearer the date. Keep an eye out for information by subscribing to our occasional newsletter and in the meantime, rather than throwing out items that are broken or missing buttons, put them to one side and bring them along to the next Repair Cafe.

Donkey Lane Community Orchard

Our extremely well attended open meeting was held on Wednesday 21st November and such is the level of interest from the Community, we have organised two site visits during the early part of December.

Once these have taken place we will be setting up a small management group in order to progress this exciting project. 

In the background all of the legalities, finance, training and administrative tasks are progressing nicely. The plan is to start clearing the immense amount of rubbish and brambles once we are into the New Year. 

As we believe that there are some significant heritage varieties to be found there, we are approaching this task with great care and sensitivity to ensure that any ‘at risk’ trees are stabilised. 

We will be calling for volunteers once we get started. However if you would rather help with publicity and planning rather than getting your hands dirty please contact us.

A copy of the meeting notes together with a copy of our aims for the orchard can be found here

Next Repair Cafe - Saturday 24 November 2018

If you would like to tell us what you intend to bring along, you can complete the PRE-BOOKING FORM. We still need some more volunteers to help with refreshments and booking in items. If you would like to help please email Linda at greeningchinnor@gmail.com or give us a ring on 07973 788339 to see how you can help. 

Community Litter Pick

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to the community litter pick yesterday. 24 volunteers and 16 bags of litter collected. Well done everyone.

We were surprised at how much litter there was this time as over the years, the amount we have collected at each event has reduced. Sadly, this time it had increased and we're still having to pick up 'poo' bags!!!!!

Our thanks to the Parish Council for the loan of the litter picking equipment and for collecting the bags.

Look out for our next community litter pick which will be held in the spring.

Spring Community Litter Pick

Sunday 4th March 2018

Once again, Greening Chinnor is linking up with Keep Britain Tidy for The Great British Spring Clean, a campaign with a simple aim:

... 'to bring people across the country together to clear up the litter that blights our towns, villages, countryside and beaches'.

We are also combining the clean up with the new Scandi craze of Plogging. Do you want to try it? Well now is your chance to stride out energetically and pick litter whilst getting fit.

Alternatively you can join us to amble around some of our beautiful network of paths and catch up with the latest gossip with your fellow villagers (whilst picking up litter).

Either way come and join us at White’s Field Car Park, Mill Lane, Chinnor, OX39 4RF 10:00 Sunday 4th March. Just bring yourself and some old gloves. Everything else supplied. We will be finished by lunchtime latest. All welcome. Directions to event.

Together we can make a difference and clean up the environment on our doorstep.

Innovative Community Action Groups are taking on unnecessary waste

We're very excited to be part of the successful bid for funding for initial Repair Cafes in Oxfordshire. Working with The CAG Project, Oxford County Council and other Oxfordshire Community Action Groups our aim is to repair items that would be thrown away but could be mended.

We throw away vast amounts of stuff, even things with almost nothing wrong which could get a new lease of life after a simple repair. The trouble is that lots of us have forgotten that we can easily repair things ourselves.

Repair Cafés are free community events where skilled volunteers help people fix their own items to save them from going to waste. The focus is on skill-sharing and an enjoyable ongoing learning process.

Knowing how to fix things is a skill quickly being lost to our modern society and with a Repair Café invaluable practical knowledge is passed on. Items are being used for longer and don’t have to be thrown away. This reduces the volume of raw materials and energy needed to make new items. It cuts CO2 emissions for example, because manufacturing new products and recycling old ones causes CO2 to be released.

With this funding and support we plan to run two Repair Cafes in Chinnor in 2018. To do this, we need your help. What can be fixed is dependent on our volunteer repairers skill set. So if you like fixing things, have a specific skill you could share and like a challenge contact Linda at greeningchinnor@gmail.com

To find out more about this exciting project go to http://cagoxfordshire.org.uk/innovative-community-action-groups-taking-electronic-waste/

Innovative Community Action Groups are taking on electronic waste - CAG Oxfordshire

Waste electronic equipment is a huge environmental problem in the UK and abroad. There are also huge missed opportunities for communities to benefit from what is…

CAGOXFORDSHIRE.ORG.UK

Latest update from Sweet Pea

Exciting times for allotment growing

If you think that the season is all over then you are wrong. We are just getting started. The mild autumn means that we can really get an early start for improved crops for the early start of next year.

Jobs

Clear as much of your ground as possible. Don’t leave any hidey holes for slugs and pests to overwinter. Old beans can be kept for drying to give you some free seed or used in the kitchen. It is a good time to dig or rotavate whilst there is not too much moisture in the soil and it is still very friable. That’s the hard bit done, now for the pleasure.

Planting – It is getting to a perfect time for planting the following.

• Broad Beans – buy from the Chinnor Allotments and Garden Association (CAGA) shed
• Onions, garlic and shallots as sets (nearest for sale is Haddenham)
• Chard and Perpetual Beet – buy from the shed
• Last sowings of lettuce such as Winter Density – buy from the shed 

Some of the sowings will benefit from a covering of fleece and you know where you can get it cheaply

Finally the seed catalogues are dropping through the door. These are best perused with a glass of wine or beer. Suttons are selling an exciting dwarf mulberry.

Happy Gardening

Sweet Pea

Film Night - Demain (Tomorrow)

'Tomorrow' comes to Chinnor Community Pavilion, Tomorrow. If you ever wondered what other communities are doing to improve their environment come along and watch this amazing film. Tickets still available £4 in advance from the Parish Office or £5 on the door.

An acclaimed feel-good documentary which is both thought provoking and inspirational. The film ‘Demain’ (Tomorrow) tells the story of communities who have found positive ways to make their world a better place.

It is a hugely positive, affirming and inspiration film, exploring creative solutions in the fields of food, energy, transport, economics and education. It visits permaculture farms, urban agriculture projects, community-owned renewable projects, local currencies, creative schools, ambitious recycling projects.

Ticket price is £4 in advance from Chinnor Parish Office, by contacting Greening Chinnor at greeningchinnor@gmail.com or by calling 01844 352753. Tickets will be available for £5 on the door. Ticket price includes light refreshments.

Autumn Community Litter Pick

It's back - both Autumn and our marvellous Community Litter Pick. Mark Sunday 15th October in your diary and as usual we will meet up in White's Field car park at 10:00 for a prompt start. We aim to finish no later than 12:30 and many of our walks finish much sooner (depending on the area being picked).

As an addition, we thought we would include some of the public access areas at Old Kiln Lakes. This lovely area is now in good use and unfortunately, as with most popular areas, it is popular for litter louts as well. If you are interested in litter picking this area, join us at White's Field and we will put together a party to work there.

There are no refreshment available on these litter picks so bring some water or light refreshments and garden gloves if you have them All other equipment will be supplied on the morning.

Spring Community Litter Pick & Clean for the Queen

We had an excellent turnout for our spring community clean up and it was good to see our regulars together with some new faces.

We split into groups and covered; White's Field, the Driftway from Chinnor to the Kingston Stert Road, Keens Lane, part of the Ridgeway to Wainhill, Springfield Gardens, Top Recreation ground, Conigre Playing Fields, Emmington Churchyard and part of the Thame Road. 

Once again, the weather was with us albeit a bit chilly. This didn't stop our volunteers and 12 bags of rubbish was collected.

Litter pick volunteers

Some of the rubbish collected

Thank you once again to our lovely volunteers who do a brilliant job to help keep Chinnor and its environs a beautiful place to live.

Spring Litter Pick & 'Clean for the Queen'

This year we are teaming up our ever popular Spring Community Litter Pick with the nationwide ‘Clean for the Queen’ event to celebrate the Queen’s 90th birthday.

Come along and enjoy a companionable walk whilst collecting any litter on our most well walked footpaths and bridleways.

Join us at Whites Field car park on Sunday 17th April at 10:00. There are varying lengths of footpaths so if you can only spare an hour, there will be a walk for you. We plan to finish by 12:30 latest.

Make sure you bring suitable clothing including gardening gloves (or similar) and suitable footwear.