Welcome to Eco SoCo
Eco SoCo is run by a brilliant bunch of local volunteers, all passionate about making our village greener and bursting with life. We’re a friendly, open-minded crew, always up for teaming up with others to shake things up and do some good. Fancy joining in? Our Repair Cafe and Community Vegetable Garden are always buzzing at Springwater Church—pop by and see what’s happening!
Our Mission – the adventure ahead: We’re all about building strong bonds with our neighbours and tackling the big stuff like climate change and biodiversity loss—one action at a time. By working together, we’re making our local wildlife thrive and boosting everyone’s mood and health in the process.
There are loads of ways you can get stuck in! Whether you love planting wildflowers for the bees, watering new trees, lending a hand at the Repair Cafe, or just fancy popping along to a meeting to share your thoughts, we’d be chuffed to have you.
Come say hello—let’s make a difference, have fun, and keep our village and wildlife blooming!
Community walk, Sonning Common, Saturday 22 November
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/cc/bbowt-community-network-events-2673619
A free event for BBOWT Community volunteers
Join BBOWT Community Network, EcoSoCo and nature expert; Nicole Clough, for a guided walk around Sonning Common. The aim of our community walk is to bring community volunteers together to explore similar themes, share skills and learn from each others experiences.
Our focus will be on improving biodiversity in a village setting. Together we will explore 3-5 sites around the village of Sonning Common to investigate and identify the opportunities to increase biodiversity at 3 village playgrounds, 1 commercial site and 1 community orchard.
During this friendly, slow paced, morning there will be lots of opportunities to discuss your own green spaces with Nicole and to hear about the work of EcoSoCo in Sonning Common.
Whats On
Repair Cafe 10.00-12.30
Saturday December 6th 2025
Saturday February 7th 2026
Saturday March 7th 2026
Saturday April 4th 2026
Saturday May 2nd 2026
Saturday June 6th 2026
Saturday July 4th 2026
Saturday August 1st 2026
Saturday September 5th 2026
Saturday October 3rd 2026
Saturday November 7th 2026
Saturday December 5th 2026
Spring 2026 Volunteer Days Dates TBC
The Eco SoCo Repair Cafe takes place on the first Saturday of every month at Springwater Church, Blountscourt Road, Peppard from 10 -12.30. We are thrilled to have a group of fabulous repairers who are skilled in repairing small electrical appliances, bikes, jewellery, textiles, clocks, children’s ride on toys and all types of household items that can be carried. Read More
Have you noticed all the wonderful new trees around the village? There are 24 in total and many more if you count the 5 new community orchards! We were thrilled to work with the Oxfordshire County Council tree team to make this a reality for the village and we hope the trees will improve life for nature and people alike, for many years to come!
The community orchards will offer a fantastic source of complimentary fruit for our community and significantly enhance biodiversity in our natural surroundings. We made sure that a number of old Oxfordshire heritage varieties were in the tree selection, as well as a variety of fruit from apples to plums to damsons. Can you help the young trees thrive during the hot summer months until they get strong enough to survive without our help?
Many villagers kindly came forward to help water a tree near to their home during the summer months this year but extra help would be really appreciated next summer. Do you have one of the new trees near your home? If you can help us during the summer months, even once a week would be great! Please email us at ecosoco24@gmail.com
The Eco Soco Group is thrilled to announce the establishment of a community vegetable garden at Springwater Church, Blounts Court Road. Aiming to enhance the health and well-being of our community, the garden offers a space where villagers can come together to grow fresh, organic produce. Read More
We have a fantastic opportunity to increase the biodiversity in Sonning Common. Our plans for 2025 include identifying opportunities for new hedgerows and trees, using our ‘Biodiversity Opportunities Map’ to help us. Please get in touch if you would like to help us with this worthwhile project. Read More
Planting for Pollinators
Every Autumn we aim to plant as many pollinator friendly bulbs as we can and so far we’ve planted a grand total of 10,000! Many people around the village have helped us including the SC Guides, St Michael’s church, Springwater church, SC primary school and a couple of street teams. In addition to the bulbs that Eco SoCo has purchased, we’ve been very grateful to receive donated bulbs from Henley Rotary and SC Parish Council.
These bulbs will provide a vital energy boost to the very earliest emerging insects, and they are key in supporting the ecology and biodiversity of flora and fauna in our area. We also hope to provide colourful and inspirational spaces for the residents of Sonning Common.
In addition to the bulbs, we have planted a wide variety of pollinator shrubs at Abbeycrest and an array of Ox Eye Daisies, Primroses and, new this year, Wild Daffodils at the Abbeycrest and Chiltern Bank orchards. Many thanks to villagers Michelle Young and David Litchfield for your kind plant donations! We’re very grateful for your green fingers!
If you think that you could offer some help, either by way of a donation or by coming along to lend a hand on our planting days, or splitting Primroses or Hellebores from your garden to donate (TBC), please email ecosoco24@gmail.com
Help create a hedgehog-friendly habitat in Sonning Common.
Make holes, gaps and tunnels between gardens to great a network of highways across the village. Enable hedgehogs to forage for food, find mates, and seek shelter. Read More