Background to WHS

The Langham Walled Garden nursery came about from a vision Catherine Supple and Steve Adams had to earn a living through the conservation of heritage plants and vegetables linked to a community food hub . Naturally this extended to the wider conservation of the surrounding area and the reintroduction of the Turtle Dove.  They were both spending every waking hour rejuvenating and restyling the historic kitchen garden at Langham.  With growing support from an amazing team of volunteers who, like me, had fallen in love with the Walled Garden they built upon their early work to develop the crop of organic vegetables and a reputable wildflower and endangered arable wildflower plant nursery.  Catherine has a knack of bringing out the best in people and as a team we helped create a habitat that benefitted people, wildlife and the burgeoning biodiversity.

Warren Lakin was so impressed by their achievement and their ambitions that he offered his services as a volunteer to take on fundraising and PR duties and in April 2022, they formed Wild Heritage Suffolk CIC with Warren, Catherine and Steve as Directors

Activities by Wild Heritage Suffolk includes,  

  • - running artisan crafts and conservation workshops,  
  • - working with Beyond The Wall, (a small group of autistic adults who worked in the garden with Catherine and myself once a month),  
  • - community outreach work a group of our volunteers helped Great Barton primary school plant  a wildflower meadow,  
  • - undertaken various bee/butterfly and moth counts,  
  • - propagating and selling heritage and heirloom vegetables, wildflowers and endangered wildflower species at local plant fairs and at the nursery at Langham,  
  • - held open days at Langham and continued to hold an annual Harvest Fair
  • - and having successfully obtained funding, have developed the Let It Grow Project which is a social therapeutic gardening project for people experiencing mental health issues.

Unfortunately, the activities of the CIC did not produce sufficient income for Catherine and this coincided with a widening difference in vision with Langham’s owner and in late 2023 Catherine took a job with Maple Farm, an organic producer.

This precipitated a review of the licence and the owner deciding to find an alternative tenant to manage the Walled Garden and so the need for Wild Heritage Suffolk to find alternative accommodation.    

The Future

After an extensive search we were delighted to find Oaks Meadow, a space already imbued with the spirit of community and biodiversity and the welcome was as warm as the space.

The Memorandum of Understanding - a necessary but dry document - does acknowledge this and the principle of cooperation between our two organisations.

Wild Heritage Suffolk brings several things to the Meadow:

  • - Several structures for general use
  • - Existing volunteers many of our volunteers have expressed an interest in coming to Oaks Meadow which will in the initial period be on an ad hoc basis while we set things up.  We also have 3 new volunteers from the last outing of the Let it Grow project.
  • - Expertise in heritage varieties and conservation.
  • - The Let it Grow project.  Owing to the timing of the move it has been decided not run the project in 2025 but to spend time putting in place all the structural and community support that will be needed for the next one in 2026
  • - Experience of running a regular Harvest Fair

We look forward to working collaboratively for the benefit of the Meadow and the Community.