Straw Bale Walkabout

An average 85m2 UK home of brick and concrete is said to release 68 tonnes CO2 in construction. For a building like ours of 643m2, we would expect to release something like 450 tonnes with conventional construction. Using Alternative Construction the picture is more like this (from the ground up): Crushed Concrete MOT Type-1:  Waste…

We were all winners last Saturday when our vicar, Richard, completed his Greater Tulse Hill Straw Bale Marathon in a time of 5 hours 20 minutes. Among those who accompanied him were Tarron, aged 8, who ran a big 2k; Jaleel, the third fastest U13 100m sprinter in the country; Ally, who signed up for…

The Straw Bale Project Team had its second meeting last night and there was a real sense of making progress. The Diocesan Advisory Committee (the group that will give us the go-ahead on the project) have confirmed their visit on 28 January, so we were keen to get everything ready for them. Over the next…

A key aspect of our project is that it is a community self-build. So it’s great, even at this early stage to have people involved, sharing skills and time. Thanks to Kevin, who spent an afternoon making a topographic survey, and his friend, who transferred the data into a usable format. Thanks to Heath, who…

It’s just beginning! Although we’ve been working and praying towards this for nearly 40 years one way or another, we now feel that we’re on the brink of a wonderful venture. Of course we’ve felt like this before, but now we seem to have something that’s both attainable and “right”. On October 21st 2013, the…

Now that our Straw Bale Communion Table is being given official permission by the Archdeacon of Lambeth, we need a more decent top for it, rather than the old bit of MDF we had knocking around the church basement!  So here’s the new top, with varnish drying in what was earlier a sunny window! I…