Off-grid Eco-friendly Woodland Classroom

Our brilliant builder, Ben, has worked incredibly hard over the winter - all through November and most weeks through December, January, and February - to make the Cabin weathertight and secure. The external walls are finished, the windows and security shutters fitted, the staircase has been installed, and almost all the flooring is down.

Two multi-functional drawbridges have been built, offering additional outside decking space as well as security when the building is not in use. Ben continues to work on completing the floor and the third drawbridge, and the solar panels are in place. The front door is due to be fitted next week (until then the doorway is secured with a wood panel). The cabin now has power and we have security cameras installed and working, which has been urgently needed due to an increase in vandalism in the past couple of weeks.

Thank you very much to Ben and to the volunteers who helped him on many occasions.

The next stage of the build is to do the interior of the Cabin: fit insulation, install connecting services and fixtures and fittings, and more to make it usable for volunteers, staff, school groups, and workshops. We hope to be 'open for business' in the summer.

The cost of materials continues to rise and so our fundraising efforts must continue. We could absolutely not do this without the generosity of donations from the community, so we thank you very much for your support in this.

Since the timber arrived from the sawmill (see previous report!), work has been steadily progressing on the eco-friendly woodland classroom, thanks to our amazing builder, Ben, and the help of our volunteers. 

Joists and beams have been used to create the subfloor and studwork. They will support the timber flooring and timber-clad walls. The floor is suspended timber so the use of concrete and other non-natural materials has been minimised.

Within the next few weeks the floorboards, cut from the larch and cedar logs as part of the 2021 milling process which created the main timbers for the frame and which have been seasoning for 12 months and now dry enough to be used, will start to go down. 

Once the floorboards and walls are in place, the windows - currently being made by a local carpenter - can be installed and the guttering and roof trimming finally completed. This will then allow us to finally connect to the underground pipework, installed by volunteers last December, that will take the roof's rainwater run-off to the ponds. We are already able to see the cabin taking shape and, with all fingers and toes crossed, it should be weathertight by December!

Thereafter, work will continue with the woodburner being moved over from the portacabin and a solar array being installed. By our next report - although not completed - we expect to be in and out of winter cold and rain.

Below are a few photos from the previous couple of months. We hope you enjoy seeing them as it is thanks to  your help that we have gotten this far. We are so grateful for the support from donors such as you, and for the hard work and time given by our volunteers.

The cost of materials continues to rise and our fundraising efforts must therefore continue. We thank you truly for your ongoing support in this.

Links:

• Our website

In the last report we were able to report that builders had been appointed and that the next phase of the build could resume. Athough, this is the case, acquiring the materials needed has required patience. Lead times for timber purchases are lengthy but we are happy to let you know that the timber needed to commence the next stage of the build finally arrived 2 days ago.

Now that the sawmill has been able to deliver the joists and beams, the subfloor can be constructed. The floorboards, cut from the logs as part of the process of milling the main timbers for the frame last year, have been seasoning for 12 months and are now dry enough to be used.

Good news though this is, it means that this report is quite a short one. We will post a further, interim report as soon as the next stage of construction has resumed and the floor is in place - about a month from now.

Timbershare
We thought, however, that you would like to know that a mini project 'Timbershare', is underway. Surplus timber and offcuts that cannot be used in the build are being shared with the community through a series of supported workshops. The first session saw offcuts used as a canvas for artwork and most recently, children and adults of all ages were taught basic woodworking skills through the construction of birdboxes. We have shared some images as part of this report.

We will be back with a further update as soon as the floor has been constructed and, as ever, we thank you for your ongoing support.

Dear supporters,

When we last wrote, we were anticipating the arrival of our roof panels for the new woodland classroom. I am happy to report that the roof panels did indeed arrive and were installed over just 2 days back in November 2021.

The roof has since provided much-needed shelter for our volunteers and for visiting schools groups over the winter months, and we have even seen evidence of a barn owl using the sheltered beams to perch on!

Rainwater pipes

With the roof up and officially 'ok'd by building regulations, we were able to dig out trenches on either side of the cabin and install some rainwater runoff pipes that will carry the rainwater from the roof and into our wildlife pond, about 100m away downhill.

Once again, we had a fantastic team of volunteers who worked hard to dig the trenches and install the pipework! Even in the pouring rain!! (see photos)

Earthmoving

All that digging left us with some rather large soil mounds and a rather daunting task of moving them to somewhere that did not obstruct the main 'gathering' space. Thankfully, the rainy weather let up and on the weekend of March 5th, a team of volunteers armed with 1 mini-digger, 6 wheelbarrows and unwavering determination managed to relocate all of that soil and return the cabin gathering space to the usual calming and beautiful space that it is. They were re-paid in bacon rolls, cheese sandwiches and lots of tea and cake!

Next steps

3 months have passed since the roof went on, and after some unexpected delays, we now have 2 timber builders who are committed and enthused to take on some of the project work and help us move things forwards - installing walls (timber cladding) and floors. We hope to have completed these steps by the time our next report reaches your screens.

We look forward to sending you further updates as the build progresses and thank you so much for your ongoing support.

Links:

• Andover Trees United

Dear supporters,

Since our last update in mid-summer, work on the cabin build has been steadily moving along, we are so excited to see this long-awaited ambition of ours taking shape. Here's what has happened since July 2021...

Concrete and archeology
Remember those 16 post holes we mentioned in our previous report? Well, shortly after they were dug out by volunteers they were filled with concrete to create foundations for the frame to sit on. By using 16 pads rather than one large concreted area, we are minimizing the amount of invasion into the ground. That is something we are keen to do not only for environmental reasons but also because back in July 2021, the position of the ditch for a Bronze Age burial mound was discovered when the post holes were being dug for the frame. It turns out, the new cabin will be sitting directly on top of the mound! An Archeologist from Southhampton University was onsite to oversee our work and during the second week of August, a team of Archaeologists returned to excavate the site.

Cob seating
The 16 cubic meter holes left us with rather a lot of leftover clay soil! In August, the Carpenters’ Fellowship project manager, Claire led a series of workshop days where around 40 people were taught the ancient technique of cob building - using clay, sand, water and straw to build structures. You see many examples of cob cottages and walls around Andover and surrounding villages.

We used the clay removed from the ground during the post hole dig to create two cob benches. School children from Portway Junior School learned about the technique in the classroom and then designed the benches for the woodland. The workshop attendees used some of the basic shapes and ideas from the designs to create the seating. The seats will be decorated next year with designs and colours inspired by the children’s drawings and we hope to include the children with this activity.

Frame raising! and celebration
Over the August bank holiday weekend, Carpenters returned to the site to prepare for the frame raising. Around 20-30 people made up of 10-15 volunteers and professional Carpenters amazingly raised the frames by hand over 2.5 days! 

Many of the returning carpenters had been involved with the hewing and jointing phases however there were many new faces joining too.

The work concluded with a celebration onsite including music and a hog roast for everyone involved. 

As with the axe hewing, an incredible team of volunteers facilitated the site, ensuring that the carpenters and volunteers were well watered and fed 3 delicious meals a day, cooked on and off-site.

The feet are secured
With the frame in place, the stainless-steel feet have now been fully secured to the concrete pads and the building surveyor has signed off this stage of the cabin.

Next stages...
The roof panels are on their way and planned to be installed next week (w/c 15th November) - providing much-needed shelter for this year's school's tree planting. This will be followed by a solar array to provide an energy source and then cladding, which will make the building weather tight before the onset of winter. 

In October 2021, a new pond extension was created by the community volunteers and the youth team; it will be served by rainwater run-off from the roof. Groundworks are scheduled to install underground pipes that will direct rainwater run-off to the ponds.

We look forward to sending you further updates as the build progresses and thank you so much for your ongoing support.

The Andover Trees United team.

Links:

• Our website