St Bees Green Future ran this seasonal swap event to encourage growers to bring along surplus produce from their gardens and allotments, dishes made from their produce and recipe ideas for using up a glut of fruit and vegetables, all helping to reduce food waste. Seeds were also welcomed to encourage growing.
A range of produce was donated including apples, beetroot, elderberries, herbs, lettuce, jam and pears. And a lovely selection of dishes to sample including apple cake, apple juice, chocolate coated apple and pear slices, courgette galette and a courgette cake, with various other recipe ideas to browse through. There was also the opportunity to try some local apple varieties – Egremont Russet and Keswick Codlin. After the event, the surplus produce was placed on the Community Garden stall for others to use.
St Bees Green Future plans to run some further food-related events, so keep a look out for future events.
To mark Great Big Green Week in June, St Bees Green Future organised a hobby item swap. Suggestions to run a swap related to craft items, outdoor and sports equipment had been made, so this swap tied these themes together. The event was popular and lots of swapping of craft items took place, including fabrics, wool, kits, patterns and books. The remaining craft items were shared between St Bees Village Primary, Little Learners Nursery and the local Beavers group. Given that it was so popular, there will be another craft swap in the future.
In May, St Bees Green Future ran a plant, seed and tool swap. This was in response to interest in garden-themed swaps from the suggestion box for St Bees Swap Together events. We also ran an activity to make little pots out of newspaper, which proved popular, allowing attendees to sow their seeds at the event. A volunteer from Cumbria Master Composters supported the event, providing information and advice about home composting.
Lots of plants and seeds were swapped and some of the tools were donated to the Community Garden. There were some surplus tomato, leek and onion plants leftover from the event, which were placed on the Community Garden’s stall at the entrance to the Priory drive.
The plan is to run a further plant and seed swap in the future, so look out for details.
Cumbria Action for Sustainability trains volunteers from sustainability groups to use thermal imaging cameras so they can offer free thermal imaging surveys in local homes. This helps to identify possible cold spots in residents’ homes and inform possible steps to make their homes warmer.
Volunteers from St Bees Green Future took up the offer of training last autumn. Four volunteers completed 37 thermal imaging surveys between December 2024 and March 2025 in St Bees and nearby villages.
If you missed the opportunity to have a free thermal imaging survey of your home or you’d be interested in helping to carry out these surveys, we hope to be able to offer them again this coming autumn and winter, so look out for details.
St Bees Green Future was successful in applying for one of Zero Carbon Cumbria’s Community Climate Grants. The grant will fund St Bees Swap Together, a series of free swap events in 2025.
As well as continuing with quarterly clothes swaps, there will be a swap event in May for plants, seeds and garden tools, and the committee is liasing with Cumbria Master Composters for a volunteer to attend this event. During Great Big Green Week in June, there will be a swap for hobby items, including sports and outdoor wear and equipment, as well as craft items. For Second Hand September, there will be a swap (theme to be confirmed) alongside a community meal to use up surplus produce. If you have any suggestions for future swap events, please let St Bees Green Future know: stbeesgreenfuture@gmail.com
St Bees Swap Together is funded by the National Lottery Community Fund and is part of the Zero Carbon Cumbria Partnership’s ambitious emission reduction programme to make Cumbria carbon neutral by 2037.
Each year on 22nd April people around the world mark Earth Day. This worldwide event is an opportunity to raise awareness of protecting the environment by engaging people and helping to raise environmental issues on national and international agendas. In 2024 the theme is “Planet vs Plastics” which highlights the harm plastic pollution can do to the health of humans and the planet.
St Bees Green Future created a poster on the theme of simple swaps to reduce single-use plastic, while also saving money. This poster was displayed in prominent windows and shared via social media. The aim was to get people thinking about what else they can do to reduce plastic consumption and reuse what they can, and to share these ideas with others.
St Bees Green Future also took the opportunity to remind residents where they can recycle plastics that can’t go in their kerbside bins and boxes, such as dental items, pens and soft plastics. A list of collection points within St Bees and West Cumbria was shared via social media.
As part of the 2023 Christmas Tree Festival at St Bees Priory, St Bees Green Future created a preloved book tree. This was decorated with paper chains made from magazines, cardboard stars made from toilet roll tubes, garden greenery and topped with a book-folded angel.
Labels were also available during the Christmas Tree Festival to let people claim any books that they wished to once the tree was taken down. The remaining books from the tree were donated to Oxfam, Samaritans and Great North Air Ambulance.
If you are looking to pick up some preloved books in St Bees, take a look in The Little Library outside 61 Main Street or browse the shelves in the beach café. Alternatively, check out the buy and sell, and share swap and give away groups for St Bees.
Second Hand September is Oxfam’s campaign to encourage people to rewear the clothes they already have, donate the clothes they no longer need and choose preloved over new clothes. Wearing preloved clothing helps to reduce the demand for new clothing, which in turn will reduce the greenhouse gas emissions generated by the fashion industry.
St Bees Green Future ran a “bring and take” event on 30th September in New College Hall for Second Hand September. As well as clothing, we invited people to bring along books, toys and household items that they no longer needed so that others could take them away without charge. Some of the items that found new homes included organic children’s clothing by Frugi, a set of Le Creuset pans, a pull-along suitcase, the game Articulate, a set of Dr Seuss books and embroidery materials. Lots more items changed hands and the remaining items were donated to charity shops to find another home.
St Bees Green Future is running a clothes swap on Saturday 18th November, 2 till 4pm, at Adams Recreation Ground. It costs £4 to take part, with refreshments included. Bring along clothes and accessories that are still in good condition and see what garments you can find to take home!
Bees, wasps, hoverflies, butterflies, moths and beetles play an essential role in pollinating flowers, shrubs, trees and crops. However, due to the loss of flower-rich habitats over the last 50 years, pollinator species have declined. Developing habitats that encourage pollinators can help to reverse their decline.
Cumbria Wildlife Trust has been delivering its Planting for Pollinators project, working with communities across north and west Cumbria to increase flower-rich habits and increase number and diversity of pollinators.
In St Bees Cumbria Wildlife Trust has worked with Adams Recreation Ground, the Community Garden and St Bees Parish Council to help develop pollinator habits in three areas of the village. In autumn 2022 wildflower seeds were sown at Adams Recreation Ground to create a wildflower meadow and wildflower plug plants were also planted in the Community Garden. This September wildflower plug plants were planted in the verge behind the wall on Beach Road with the help of pupils from St Bees Village School.
One of the volunteers from the Community Garden describes the help offered by Cumbria Wildlife Trust as part of this project:
“Last year Cumbria Wildlife Trust supported the Community Garden through the Planting for Pollinators Project. They met us and surveyed the grounds and what was there and set us up with a management plan containing lots of useful advice on how to manage the garden long term. They offered a work day of free labour (CWT volunteers) to help us clear more ground and in the autumn provided us with some wild flower plug plants and, finally, some tools to add to our kit. All much appreciated.”
Cumbria Wildlife Trust also provided St Bees Green Future with wildflower seed packets to distribute among residents keen to provide pollinator-friendly habitats in their own gardens, as we can all take action to help reverse the decline of pollinators.
Wildflower meadow at Adams Recreation GroundPlanting wildflower plug plants along Beach Road
During Great Big Green Week, St Bees Green Future shared energy and money saving tips via social media and St Bees News.
Energy saving tips from turning off lights and not using standby to line drying clothes, using a slow cooker and only boiling as much water as you need were also depicted in scenes along Main Street and Sea Mill Lane.
Sustainable St Bees 