Play.Eat.Laugh.Sleep..Pickwell: Surfers Against Sewage

Monday, 28 November 2011

Surfers Against Sewage

After the Social Enterprise week, we then had an amazing mediation course through an organisation called Peaceworks. Pickwell Richard actually went on the course himself, and the feedback was outstanding as the 'best course ever been on'. Thank you to Chris Seaton who ran the course and who is responsible for a lot more constructive conversations across the country as a result! Rich may be adding something about this on our Pickwell Manor Facebook Page.

On the same day Chris and the guys left, Surfers against Sewage (SAS) arrived! Or as our good friend Eils has now named them..Smurfs against Sewage...

We knew they had arrived by the wonderful car stickers that appeared in our car park...

I realised it had been years since I'd thought about car stickers

and yet here they were...loads of them!

and this is only a small sample

I think it definitely talks of the passion each car owner has for the surf!

A few guys arrived early to set up, putting news cuttings about the beach and environment and press releases about themselves all over the Ballroom.

Peter came from The Museum of British Surfing, based up the road in Braunton. The board on the right is 100 years old!

The atmosphere was very relaxed as people arrived,

grabbed themselves a glass of Barefoot Wine... (fascinating story behind 'Barefoot' but will save for another occasion).

and ate some extremely dodgy looking pizza! They had to repeat this pizza meal the next day for lunch too, as one of the team who was sent out to buy lunch for the 30ish people there, came back with 8 pasties and wondered why everyone was so aghast! Apparently that's all the shop had left. Ha! The good news is, all prospective Pickwell Brides, these are not our chosen wedding catering team.

This is What SAS had to say in their newsletter following the weekend:

"The SAS team has just returned from our annual SAS Regional Reps training weekend. It is always inspiring to bring our regional leaders together to hear about the SAS campaign actions and projects they’ve been active on for their respective stretch of coastline".

"They bring their local knowledge, local connections, motivations and ideas to help create an increasingly strong national SAS movement tackling coastal pollution."

"The weekend included classroom sessions, interactive presentations and activities, and beach-based exercises. We included a beach clean and, using the collected marine litter, implemented lots of Return To Offender (RTO) activity."

"In just an hour of beach cleaning our team removed 78kgs of litter and then sent over 50 items back to manufacturers through the RTO campaign!"

"We’d like to thank LUSH and the Patagonia Tides Foundation who have been hugely supportive of our Regional Reps in 2011 and of our work tackling marine litter this year."

"We’d like to thank Pickwell Manor for their donation to make the event possible Thanks to SAS Directors Ben Hewitt, Richard Gregory and Jim Gorrod for all their help with the event."

Tracey and the girls, all fired up over keeping our beaches clean, went to join the group litter picking on Saunton beach.

The only slight problem was the surf was up so the whole group had all gone to surf at Putsborough beach instead!

The good news is folks, it wasn't all work, work, work! x

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Our Story

Many people have asked what the story is, how did the Bakers and Elliotts come to be at Pickwell?

Are you sitting comfortably?

Tracey and Susannah became friends at 6th form college. Steve and Tracey lived in the same village in Sussex. Steve's dad was the vicar and Tracey's dad was Steve's scout leader. Even more wierd, Susannah's dad (also a church minister) and Steve's dad were friends, but Steve and Sus never met.

One summer Tracey took Susannah along to a youth summer camp. Steve was one of the leaders (read : heightened attraction) and a little later Steve and Sus got together. During their 6 on/off years they met Richard, a blue eyed boy from Guildford.

At a club night run by Steve, somehow through the dark and crowded room, Tracey and Richard bumped into eachother (if you have seen the shapes they pull on the dancefloor you would know how easily this happened)..

In the year 2000 they all got married. Tracey and Susannah were eachother's bridesmaids. They have remained firm friends ever since.

When Steve and Susannah came across Pickwell Manor, they knew they couldn't manage such a project on their own. They asked the Elliotts if they would give up their house, their jobs and their community to come and live and work with them and own the project together. They knew there weren't many people they could ask to do such a thing knowing they would still love each other by the end. So they all left everything in Sussex and came to Devon.

They moved on the same day in August 2008. It has been a crazy, wonderful, scary, emotional and beautiful experience so far. All of them would say they feel very ALIVE!

Since they moved they have run 51 successful and wonderful weddings (with more to come), many, many holidays, built or totally refurbished 6 apartments from scratch, updated carpets, painted white throughout, put in quite a few kitchens and bathrooms (including 2 baths on concrete plinths), changed much of the furniture, converted a laundry and have started to convert the chapel. Every year they also have a bonfire gathering in October, an Easter Eggstravaganza fundraising event, and anything else that is not-for-profit that they can fit in. Tracey has completed a dissertation and gone back to nursing for 2 days a week, Steve has started up a new company in London, Richard has mastered a lot of the running of the house as well as training as a coach, specialising in stress management, Sus has taken on the interiors and Tracey and Susannah have learnt weddings in at the deep end! All with 4 young Pickwellians by their sides.

"Our passion is for making life count. Our values lie in
friendship, celebration, valuing others, and social justice. We see Pickwell as a reflection of these things but also a place for rest, recouperation, laughter and conversation. We want to support charities and social enterprises to fufil their dreams and make a difference."

"We love Devon, we love the community here, we love seeing our children grow with nature and discovering the great outdoors. We have to pinch ourselves sometimes when we think about our life here, it is amazing".