The WARR Partnership is a well established Local Action Group (LAG) that has a track record of successfully delivering LEADER Programmes since 2002. The funding through the RDPE Programme, delivered using the LEADER method by the WARR Partnership Local Action Group is available from 2008 – 2013.
The WARR area now includes the whole of rural Wealden and Rother Districts in East Sussex, including the market towns of Hailsham, Heathfield, Battle and Rye, but excluding the urban areas of Bexhill, Crowborough and Uckfield.
The Partnership, made up of local people and organisations working for the regeneration of the rural area, has secured funding through the RDPE funding programme. RDPE LEADER is a source of funding to help revitalise and support rural businesses and rural communities. The funds will help develop new enterprises as well as providing major opportunities for businesses and communities to work together to invest in their future.
Chris Masters—Forestry
This forestry contracting business, which already offered tree surgery, felling, biomass chipping and fencing services, required additional equipment to support its expansion into arboricultural management and consultancy. Forestry machinery purchased with the funding enables access to difficult and sensitive woodland locations, allowing timber extraction at optimum times and making the extraction of lower value timber more viable. Utilising waste timber for firewood processing increases the woodland’s economic value, benefiting both contractor and forestry owner.
Hurst Green Community Shop
Hurst Green Parish Council acquired an 80 year lease with peppercorn rent, on a small redundant church in the heart of the village. Funding was used to support the first phase of its conversion into a community hub, by enabling the building to be re-roofed and made structurally sound. The lease will shortly be taken over by an IPS, which will complete the building’s transformation into a centre which combines a community shop & post point, youth centre, and café facility, with space for support services such as the community nurse. A successful community share scheme raised additional funds and residents’ views have been sought at every stage, to ensure the end result will meet the community’s needs.
Ashdown Manna Cookery School
This successful small cookery school had been operating from the Home Economics kitchen of a local school, but this limited expansion, as it could only function outside school hours. Funding has enabled it to set up a permanent, independent base on a farm close to the Ashdown Forest, where a fully-equipped demonstration kitchen and dining area have been installed. It also supported an upgrade to the school’s website, to provide online booking facilities.
Great Dixter Great Barn
Additional buildings at this popular visitor attraction could only be made accessible to the public with repair and restoration. The Grade II listed Great Barn, believed to be the largest surviving medieval barn in this part of East Sussex, has a wealth of early construction details, including threshing floors, feeding troughs and a grain store. There are also three oast houses with original kilns, drying floors and cowls. Funding will enable these buildings to be opened to the public, increasing visitor interest by providing additional all weather facilities, where displays of farming history and demonstrations of rural skills can
be housed.
Blackdown Woodfuel
This farm managed its woodlands, but lacked storage/processing facilities to further develop its forestry activities. Funding has been used to build a timber, open-fronted three-bay barn, with an area of hard-standing to provide yard space for outdoor processing and roundwood storage. Timber can now be processed undercover in wet weather, and is correctly stored and seasoned for the growing woodfuel market. Three generations of the family live on two neighbouring farms, and share the new facilities, which have greatly improved the volume of timber processed.
Home Farm Woodland
This family-run farm, which included 50 acres of ancient woodland, needed help to restore it to a viable business. A Management Plan, drawn up with the support of the Forestry Commission, provided guidance on the sustainable management of the woodland, and grant funding was used to purchase forestry machinery. The farm is now able to process timber harvested from its own woodlands into logs and kindling, to meet the strong localdemand they had evidenced in support of their bid. In addition to extending the life of its own ancient woodlands, the business expects to be able to offer a service to other local woodland owners within a year. It also expects to create a winter part time job making the deliveries.
Chitcombe Farm Woodland
This working farm, which again has its own woodland, had been producing logs manually, using a chainsaw and log splitter. This was both exhausting and limited the amount of wood the farm could process. As a result, it was finding it increasingly difficult to keep pace with demand; to the extent that it had had to turn customers away the previous winter. Funding has been used to purchase a log processor, which has speeded up the production of wood fuel. Not only has this ensured local demand can be met, but it has also increased the time available to carry out the coppicing work that will ensure the timber growth required to meet demand in the future.
Etchingham Coal Yard
An earlier project saw the successful conversion of the unused station master’s house at Etchingham Station into a thriving Bistro. However, as the use of the all day station car park added £3.50 to every bill, the lack of short term parking was limiting its customer base to commuters and passing foot traffic. This has been solved by using additional funding to decontaminate and resurface an overgrown coal yard opposite the Bistro building. This had lain disused since the 1950’s and was a local eye-sore, but the land now provides 15 car parking spaces, together with glass recycling facilities for the local community.
Swallowtail Hill Eco Tourism
This former farm is managed as a unique area of conservation, and its owners needed a means of earning an income to continue their work. A successful small scale eco camping trial encouraged them to seek funding for the purchase of two individually designed and constructed wheeled shepherd’s huts; one modelled on a woodman’s hut and the other resembling a crooked country cottage. Each site also has a specially designed log fired eco shower cubicle and compost loo and all facilities are removable for winter storage, to keep the facility ‘light touch’ on the environment.
Land of Learning
With the help of its children, this small primary school had created an outdoor ‘Land of Learning’ within its grounds. This included a vegetable and a wild garden, and incorporated camps and shelters, but these were not enough to protect the children during cold or wet weather. Funding will be used to purchase an 18 ft yurt with a wood burning stove which, furnished with rugs, cushions and sofas, will provide a warm, dry base in all weathers from which the children can engage in subjects such as literacy, music, art, stories, poetry, and listening skills. It will also be available to the pre school children, as well as Brownies, Guides, Cubs and other youth groups in the village.
Old Social Club
The financial collapse of the Social Club, which had formerly leased this part of the Wadhurst Village Hall, had left the building in a poor state of repair, needing substantial refurbishment before it could again generate an income for the Trust. Part of the building had been converted into a new library for the village, and Phase 2 has used funding to meet two further needs. Self contained accommodation has been leased to the Wadhurst History Society, providing them with a large working area for research, plus a second room which will in time become a public display area. A further room provides much needed changing facilities for the stage productions held in the main hall, along with additional storage facilities for all users.
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