We are a group of residents in and around Chulmleigh who care deeply about the environment in which we live and want to ensure its future for generations to come.
We run a variety of events which are open to everyone including: our popular repair café; visits to local wildlife, conservation and rewilded areas; visiting speakers; wildlife walks; bird nest box building and checking; plant hunts, tree planting; coffee mornings and many more.
Meet the committee
Claire Withers, Nick Withers, Julie Yeo, Kelly Vipond, Dorette Eli and Jack Smellie
We welcome biogs from all our members: your chance to tell others a bit about yourself and your 'sustainable' lives. Please send a short (400-500 words) piece about yourselves and a photo to info@sustainablechulmleigh.org.uk.
I grew up in the 1960s in the beautiful countryside on the Essex/ Suffolk border. A childhood spent outdoors in all seasons (I was lucky enough to have my own pony), left me with a deep and abiding love and wonder for our natural world.
Following time spent at agricultural college (where I met my husband Nick), we farmed for several years before coming to Devon in 1998.
We now run our own gardening business with an emphasis on helping our clients to garden in a nature friendly way.
I organise Chulmleigh Open Gardens each year and have been a committee member of Chulmleigh Old Fair since 2004.
We love to holiday in Scotland in early spring or Norfolk in the autumn, both fantastic times to watch wildlife.
In my spare time (!!) I also love to bake.
We are founding members of Sustainable Chulmleigh which we set up in 2019 along with a small group of environmentally concerned friends. We are proud of the fact our group now has over 400 members and a wide range of events behind us.
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My husband, Andy and I moved to Chulmleigh in July 2022 and we were excited to join Sustainable Chulmleigh!
I've been researching and writing about environmental issues since my teens. As a primary teacher, I've run eco clubs and studied Geography as my main subject, but back in the day, we called it 'the greenhouse effect'.
After signing hundreds of pointless petitions and trying to do 'my bit' for the planet, I decided that I needed to do so much more so I joined Extinction Rebellion and have seen huge changes in the way environmental issues are reported, climate emergencies are declared and global projects and networks have blossomed as a direct result of hundreds of peaceful protests by ordinary folks like myself.
Here's me in action at the first XR North Devon South Molton Eco Fair.
I will never give up hope in leaving a beautiful planet for future generations.
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I have spent the best part of my life working and living in the countryside. The last 23 years living in Chulmleigh.
A life outdoors has fostered the greatest respect for nature and all life on our beautiful planet.
From my earliest days, as a child, I realised that I had a profound love for all nature. It developed into a deep bond, a symbiosis! I felt most comfortable traipsing the hills, woodlands, river banks and lanes looking for all manner of birds, mammals and tiny beasties. But also I felt I had to look out for them and protect them too.
I have spent much of my time petitioning MP's and publicly protesting over many issues including climate change, biodiversity loss, whaling, habitat destruction, pollution, illegal persecution of raptors, human rights and many other issues and will continue to do so long as I am able.
I helped as a volunteer for the National Trust, for Exmoor National Park and carried out bird surveys for the British Trust for Ornithology. Claire and I have recently surveyed for the Badger Trust's pilot census study.
After eventually settling in North Devon, Claire and I set up our nature friendly gardening business which we have now been running for 18 years.
I am a wildlife photographer, travelling throughout the UK. My favourite times are spent waiting and watching pine martens, deer, badgers, puffins, white tailed eagle, ospreys and red squirrels to name but few.
I now teach wildlife photography, run courses and workshops and take clients for nature walks in rural Devon.
As a founder member of Sustainable Chulmleigh I believe that building local resilience , skill sharing and adaptability are so important as we face climate breakdown and an uncertain future. Growing food locally, repairing rather than replacing, sharing resources, helping each other are all very necessary as we move forward into challenging times.
Fast approaching 60, I still feel I can help make a difference and help support our fragile natural world.
Lets all work at halting and reversing biodiversity loss, help create climate change solutions and end this madness of infinite growth on a finite planet.
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Breeding slugs in ice-cream containers; keeping caterpillars until they pupated and then waiting with excitement to see what emerged; having buckets of water boatmen in my bedroom (that then flew out and bit me in the night).. yep, this was my childhood!! I held 'invertebrate' shows and then charged my parents and siblings to come and watch. I had a term off school in my early teens due to oil strikes and/or being snowed in, and spent every day bird watching, learning (amongst other things) to tell individual male great tits apart from the width of their bibs! Childhood holidays were spent in the wilds of Scotland where we walked and watched and totally immersed ourselves in nature.
Becoming an adult was annoying (hunting grasshoppers and crickets in the Malvern Hills wasn't a career option sadly) but holidays and then 'travel' continued to be filled with all things green and wonderful: from being watched by a black squirrel as I went for a quick wee in the woodlands of Mongolia, later falling asleep to the sounds of the wolves above us; to realising I couldn't hold my breath for as long as a nightjar's amazing and prolonged churrrrring song (location Ashdown Forest).
A change of lifestyle 15 years ago, saw us become smallholders, ('us' being myself and partner of now 35 years), where we attempted to balance a more sustainable way of life with living alongside the wildlife who shared our land. It's a great way to live but as the years rolled by and we saw 'nature' becoming more and more depleted (both on our land, country and worldwide), we realised that we wanted to give the land 'back' as much as we could. Owning land is, after all, a huge privilege.
We continue to grow a lot of fruit and vegetables (soft fruit does very well on our land) and are now full-blown vegetarians – to misquote a famous quote: 'we looked into the abattoir... and the abattoir looked back'). We have planted over 1300 trees and are in the process of creating a wildlife landscape including several large ponds. Our hedgerows are thick, full and (mainly – don't ask) uncut.
Being smallholders certainly taught us the 'make do and mend' approach alongside David's favourite saying: 'don't throw it away, stick it in my workshop 'cos one day it will 'come in'.'
Being part of Sustainable Chulmleigh is perfect. It's a chance to help spread the word and become better educated about what 'we' are doing to our beautiful planet. To misquote another famous quote, we all need to 'wake up and realise we can no longer smell the roses…'.
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Hi I am Kelly. I've always loved being in nature and enjoying the outdoors, but this connection grew even stronger after becoming a mum.
In 2019, I realised the extent of the damage we were causing to the planet. It hit me hard, and the thought of the impact on my children's future was truly terrifying.
Meeting like-minded people, getting involved in grassroots actions and raising awareness of the need for sustainability has been amazing 💚
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Key members
Meet Amy Roberts, the North Devon Biosphere Animator for Chulmleigh, Ashreigney and Riddlecomb who is a key figure at our monthly meetings.
Q. What does your role involve?
A. In a nutshell, it's about helping communities to achieve their nature recovery pledges and plans. Getting people into action; talking to young people about their plans for a green economy; working with people to come up with ideas.
Q. What attracted you to the job?
A. I really want to get more people of all types and ages interested in nature and the environment.
Q. What makes North Devon such a special region when it comes to connecting people and nature?
A. A lot of people come to Devon because of its nature, we are lucky to be blessed with amazing landscapes and unique niche environments that are habitats to some amazing creatures.
Q. Favourite part of the job so far?
A. Being able to indulge in helping nature recovery.
Q. Do you have a favourite place in North Devon?
A. Not really, although there are some very special spots that are just perfect to me and they are just a walk from my home. Of course there are lots of very special places around here.
Q. What are some of the best ways to connect with nature here?
A. So many different ways, literally from feeding the birds in your back garden (you can easily get gold finches, green finches, marsh tits, siskins, nuthatches, woodpeckers come to you in this area) to hiking across the moors and finding incredible valleys and woodlands, coastlines. So many ways to connect with nature in North Devon.
Q. What is you favourite animal in North Devon?
A. I'm really into birds – I get huge pleasure seeing swifts in the summer… Also - Grasshopper Warbler - I’m always thrilled and amazed when I hear that they are in the Ashreigney area.
Q. What is your perfect weekend (when you aren’t working)?
A. Romping through undergrowth with binoculars.
Q. How can people get more involved in the Biosphere?
A. There are lots of events that are organised by the biosphere and its partners; lots of different community groups that are doing great things; you may want to visit some of the recommended places; you may need some advice; we are a friendly and helpful bunch of people.
Q. What are your hopes for the future?
A. That we have compulsory education of the natural world and sustainability so that future generations don’t struggle to understand the importance of what we have and what is at stake.
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Newsletters
Minutes and policies
Minutes of meetings
12th February 2025
22nd January 2025
11th December 2024
12th November 2024
15th October 2024
2nd October 2024
Policies etc
Risk Assessment: latest version October 2024
Safeguarding: latest version October 2024
Sustainable Chulmleigh Constitution
Confirmation of Public Liability
Certificate of Employers' Liability
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