This project was funded by the Dedham Vale Sustainable Development Fund
Download the Reskilling the Valley pdf
Over the next 20 – 30 years the way we live in the Stour Valley will have to change dramatically to a “post peak oil” and “climate change” lifestyle – one that is re-localised and less dependent upon oil and carbon sources of energy.
Some of the changes will use modern technologies and ideas but some will draw on skills from the past. The ‘Reskilling the Valley’ project in the Dedham Vale AONB and the Stour Valley aimed to find the ‘keepers’ of these skills, personally interview and record them and then start the process of transferring these skills to the younger generation in a style which is creative and fun for all involved – the skills areas include:
- Food production – growing fruit and vegetables, gathering/growing wild food and mushrooms, seed saving on a domestic and commercial scale. Animal husbandry. Wild food.
- Domestic skills – preserving food, recipes, knitting, sewing, repairing.
- Woodland management – coppicing, pollarding, charcoal making, furniture making, tool making/repair.
- Sustainable energy production – wind and water mills.
- House building and shelter making – paint, thatching, cob, hurdle making.
- Markets – traditional ways to markets and selling
Skills and stories were recorded in a booklet which was published in Spring 2010- click here.
View ‘Reskilling the Valley’ – Dedham Vale AONB and Stour Valley in a larger map
