Our Facebook page is updated regularly and you can see a preview here.

We will also be making general announcements and updates on this page.

To view a calendar of events, please see our Events page

Lanchester Spring Clean in Numbers

Thank you to everyone who made the Lanchester Spring Clean such a success this year. It was a bright and cheerful day, the village green crocuses were in full bloom and the villager volunteers were out in force.

Here’s a summary of the event in numbers!!

• 42 bags of rubbish collected.
• 11 bags of recycling sorted.
• 12 empty beer bottles, washed, neatly packaged and dumped in the hedge for someone else to pick up.
• 6 roadside signs put up and taken back down.
• 68 keen, hardworking volunteers picking throughout the morning – a record number!
• 5 bags of rubbish collected from Peth bank by volunteers on Friday because they couldn’t attend on Saturday. That’s dedication for you.
• 21 children who stayed the course and did a sterling job.
• 335 cigarette ends collected from the bus stop and the back of the front street shops by one volunteer. She promises to continue her visits to the proprietors and ask them to provide and empty suitable repositories for any staff who smoke at the back of the shops.
• 5 members of the Environment Group who organised and ran the session or helped pick.
• 1 County Coucillor who always lends a hand and promised to chase up the issue of excessive rubbish on the roads leading out of the village particularly along Ford Road.
• 8 used vapes that were recycled in the library. Do we need more vape recycling facilities in the village to keep these dangerous items out of landfill?
• 2 helpful springer spaniels who retrieved empty bottles and cans from the bankside inaccessible to their handler.
• 1 volunteer who singlehandedly collected 5 large bags of rubbish along the A691 west of St Bedes. What a Star!
• 48 breakfast butties supplied free of charge, for litter pick volunteers, by the Community Cafe. A very big thank you.
• 39 gin and wine bottles from under one bush near the line.
• 1 Lanchester village that is spruced up ready for Spring.

How good it is to be part of a village where so many of its members are keen to keep it looking good. Thank you to everyone.

The Spring Clean is organised by the Environment Group which is part of The Lanchester Partnership. If you’d like to become involved our email is: contact@lanchesterpartnership.org.uk

Trees for Lanchester

Our group of tree planting volunteers have been busy again planting over 1,200 tree saplings this winter. We planted in freezing fog and on gloriously warm bright days, whenever we could gather enough volunteers. Our star planter was young Max who should be commended for his hard work.

All our trees are native British trees mainly gifted from a sister group of an energy company called “I Dig Trees” but also many grown from seed at our tree nursery tended by our volunteers.

This year we have experimented with growing trees more densely on a site in the Brownie valley. This method has been shown to encourage more rapid growth and capture more carbon. A dense thicket should develop after a few years which should become a home for birds and insects. We are looking forward to see how our “Tiny Forest” performs over the next few years.

It you’d like to join us for a few hours of planting, there are always plans afoot for further digging. We are also looking for new places to plant so if you’re a land owner and have a space for some native trees do let us know. We’re also keen to expand our tree nursery and looking for hawthorn, hazel, oak, rowan and crab apple seedlings. Do let us know if you have any growing in your garden you’d like to gift to the project.

‘Trees for Lanchester’ is an initiative of The Lanchester Partnership Environment Group. If you’d like us to collect seedlings, view land with a potential for planting or join the digging squad please contact us on: lanchestertrees@gmail.com  or text Sonny on 07817369160.