https://www.facebook.com/900497946488113/

Brixham Trust, Brixham (2026)

04/05/2026

Huxham's Cross is a Community Orchard within the Dartington estate to the north of Totnes.

Established in 2013 this 2.2 acre field has been planted with a variety of apple, pear, plum, cherry & nut trees & there are vegetable patches & bee hives here & there in the field. The different parts of the orchard are tended to by a number of groups in the locale & the bounty of fruit produced goes towards apple juice & cider making, cakes & bakes & just simply enjoying fresh, seasonal & locally grown fruit (& lots & lots of it!).

The orchard isn't just a means of growing food, the trees & shrubs & other plants + the bee hives contribute to the biodiversity of the locale providing food & habitat for insects & birds which in turn makes the orchard an abundantly living, thriving place.

The orchard is used throughout the year to host events such as Wassails & birthday parties & yesterday Brought in the May with its MAY FEST & as can be seen from these photos it was a well attended event! A May Pole danced around, songs sung, families catching up with one another... real wealth, lifetime memories made & all in a place that exists because folk have made the choice to create something of genuine, lasting worth to pass on through the generations.

Huxham's Cross shows what folk can do for themselves when they make an investment & stick with it & being so is an example of how things were for most folk the length & breadth of the land before "the modern world", that has chosen to weaken itself & make itself dependent on "systems/global supply chains", became the "default" way of "living" the consequences of which result in the nondescript, always available mystery produce lined shelves at "supermarkets" & the accompanying could be anywhere characterless mode of architecture & "styles" of dress presented as "progress" coming to define the sense of every place all over the country (& the rest of the world too).

Brixham used to be served by a number of orchards & farms but as a consequence of "global supply chains" & folk deciding to stop supporting their locales & do their "bargain shop" at "supermarkets" etc. they have been allowed to wither, die & in some cases be built on, but this is not how things have to remain!

Would you like to be involved in efforts to establish a project like this here in Brixham?

02/05/2026

Our May Day Celebration, though a far more modest affair than what had been planned, applied for & application submission paid for (+ a follow up plan submitted & paid for by a representative body of other groups & organisations here in Brixham that had been eager to take part though could not without due diligence of "i's dotted & t's crossed" being sorted hence the requirement of having heard back from those signing off...), went ahead on Furzeham Green the traditional setting for fairs & gatherings here in Brixham.

Our Queen of the May & Her Consort Jack 'O the Green were in attendance to welcome the beginning of Summer & as we wended our way round our "May Pole", the pictured trees that will be part of a planting project to replace trees felled by storms or removed from the locale for other reasons in recent years (the planting to take place at separate ceremonies at the end of the year/beginning of next, the trees being well cared for between now & then), this poem was recited:

Hwæt!

Hail! Hail! The Queen of the May!
Jack 'O the Green Hail!

Round the trees we'll wend our way to Bring in the May!

Summer is a' cu**in in,
Blossom & perfume fills the air,
the Birds return to build their nests
their Song the music for our fair!

Hail! Hail! The Queen of the May!
Jack 'O the Green Hail!

Round the trees we'll wend our way to Bring, Ring & Sing in the May!

Summer is a' cu**in in,
Her Beauty resplendent aglow!
We Celebrate the Wheel She Turns
As Onwards Eternal We Shall Go.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

As we now have a whole year to plan a May Day celebration involving those that were meant to be part of the celebration yesterday: schools, youth groups & community groups here in Brixham, we hope that May Day 2027 will turn out to be even more than what we had originally planned for yesterday, Hail to the May!

01/05/2026

It's May Day! What does May Day mean for Brixham, for Devon, for England, for Britain, for Europe?

These pages from "Folk Festivals and Traditions of Devon" by David Trist & Richard Roddis of the Devon Folklife Register (published 1980 by Exeter City Museums Service & printed & bound by Joseph Banks & Son (Printers) Ltd, Northernhay Street, Exeter) will provide some answers!

This book can be found among the other local interest tomes on the first floor of Brixham Library.

A reminder, we shall be gathering in the vicinity of Furzeham Green 5ish this evening to Sing in the May & Hail the Queen of the May & Her Consort Jack 'O the Green!

29/04/2026

A brief update: if you are in the vicinity of Furzeham Green on Friday evening 5/5:30ish you may find yourself ringing & singing in the May & Hailing The May Queen & Jack o' the Green!

25/04/2026

In this bag there are four saplings, a Buckthorn, a Hawthorn, a Pig's Snout apple tree & a Bleinhem Orange apple tree acquired from Mother Tree just outside of Dartington...

The plan was that they would form the "May Pole" for our May Day morning May Day festival here in Brixham but as there has been a delay in hearing back from those that "dot i's & cross t's" as to whether the event, that was planned to involve the schools of Brixham, can take place on Furzeham Green we are - with less than a week to go - attempting to salvage something to celebrate the day as has been custom for a very, very long & cherished time here in England.

As part of the May Day festival the trees were to be gifted one to each attending school so that they could name them after a person of significance to their school & look after the saplings until they could be planted here in Brixham, either at Furzeham Green or Battery Gardens as part of a broader programme of tree planting to replace trees felled for varying reasons in recent years, towards the end of this year/the beginning of next (this last bit has been provisionally agreed to by SWISCo). The aim was that by having the schools name & look after the saplings they would be "kept an eye on" to ensure they would have the best chance of establishing themselves & thriving, it was also hoped that this could play a part in strengthening the connection people in Brixham have with what's left of the "green spaces" here, to foster a sense of appreciation for the natural world in the school children who will inherit Brixham as their own & to contribute to broader efforts to revive a "Scouts" type/outward bounds youth club here in Brixham... all a great deal of work, as with the May Day plans, requiring many meetings, phone calls, emails, submission of forms & applications for event approvals & payments of £ for processing etc...

We have not given up & something will be happening on May Day so... if you happen to be in Brixham on May Day perhaps you will find yourself at our May Day festival...

14/04/2026

Yesterday a meeting was held in the library to discuss the Conservation Area Management Plan for Brixham, this followed a presentation about the same subject the preceding week at the library.

The Conservation Area Management Plan for Brixham is part of a broader project that will award twenty areas in the country (of which Brixham Paignton & Torquay comprise one of these twenty areas) a share of £200 million from a The National Lottery funding pot (it won't be shared "equally" so it's not £10 million for each of the twenty areas) to invest in heritage conservation & enhancement works.

There will be further public discussions to develop the plan for Brixham, hosted by Torbay Communities, as the year progresses with the aim to finalise the plan by the end of the year & practical steps being taken to begin realising what's been decided by Brixham from May next year.

Beyond the need to ensure Brixham's share of the £ actually goes towards heritage & conservation works of genuine benefit, priority & importance to Brixham, such as the paving on Fore Street & the lamentable state of many of the premises along what ought to be the premier throughfare in Brixham showing what the town means to Brixham, one of the most important matters raised was the need to involve younger people in the development of these plans, it is crucial that the young people of Brixham are able to play a role in shaping the future of the town as they will inherit it & deserve to be given the chance to meaningfully contribute to developing what will happen here in the coming years. Without doing so any "conservation" efforts will fall very short of what's required serving to drive an even deeper wedge between the generations here than what currently exists in some contexts more than others as far as how Brixham considers itself & what it works towards realising as "how Brixham is, can & will be".

Sometimes, & the "times" vary depending on which facet of Brixham is considered, there is a distinct disconnect between the generations here in Brixham, perhaps(?) not too surprising considering the majority of people living in Brixham are well into retirement & therefore are no longer focused on "youthful pursuits" (those pursued by actual younger folk & not the "young at heart"), not to say that older people here do not care for the younger people here nor that some do not work towards doing what they can to make Brixham a place for people of all ages but there is a sometimes subtle & othertimes profound disconnect at work determining the overall way in which Brixham considers itself & "what's best for Brixham". The placing of the "skate park" at monksbridge is a good example of this meaning that those wanting to use it, mostly - if not entirely those below a certain age, must go all the way out of Brixham to make use of it, not ideal for a variety of reasons... Also, the average social event/club set up in Brixham is more often than not staffed & enjoyed by those who, shall we say, no longer have any "homework" to hand in, & in very many cases the youngest person involved is in their 30's or even late 40's!!! (The author of this piece is also one of these late 40's examples...)

So, what can be done to address this? The town has a youthclub run by Fuel Youth Initiative CIC held at the Scala every Tuesday from 3:15pm - 5pm during school term time + the town has a Boys Brigade held at the Brixham United Reformed Church + there is a Girl Guides & Brownies here in Brixham + there is The Edge Brixham CIC & other community focused clubs that no shortage of younger people are involved in such as Brixham RFC Youth at the Brixham Rugby Club & the Brixham Town FC youth division... & then there are all the schools: Furzeham Primary and Nursery School, Brixham C of E Primary School, Eden Park Primary and Nursery School, the Indigo School at Chestnut School, home schooled kids, those acting as carers for younger siblings & older relatives, those already working either part or full time... (by no means a comprehensive list...) So, no shortage of younger folk who will have plenty of ideas that need to be heard & incorporated when it comes to deciding precisely what this Conservation Area Management Plan will mean for Brixham!

Onwards & Upwards for Brixham! The future of Brixham is in Brixham's hands (of all ages).

04/04/2026

A highly informative & productive meeting was had today with someone heavily involved in the organising of the former carnival set up here in Brixham, an absolute treasure-trove of detail (beyond the wildest piratical dreams), insight & suggestion was shared from the person who so generously allowed their time - on a weekend & the Easter weekend at that - to be on offer, it was a true pleasure to learn so very much of genuine pertinence to not only the Brixham carnivals held in the past as we plan reviving it here but also in regards to Brixham as a whole itself, so Brixham Trust is deeply grateful for this chance to learn about the past & present & develop plans for the future of Brixham that honour the very people & efforts prior made without which there would be no Brixham for anyone to come from, live in or visit.

This is the very ESSENCE of what Brixham Trust is about: understanding what Brixham is & contributing to making these fundamentals of what make Brixham "Brixham" - IT'S history, heritage & culture (& not random could be anywhere could be anything "stuff" carelessly offered by some mystery person from & based in who knows where) - front & centre in the town once more & we do this by asking, listening, learning, enquiring, working with likeminded folk - especially those with real knowledge of the what's, why's, where's & how's of Brixham - so as to understand how effectively to do this.

The revived carnival is one of the projects we're working on returning to the town calendar & though this year's event may not be as "Grand" as we can dream it will be a starting point to build on in the coming years.

Brixham has a choice: to continue to become something that is unrecognisable as "Brixham" - an ever-increasing sprawling mess of disconnected people largely strangers to one another (outside of those left with some connection to one another outnumbered by the ever-increasing presence of "blow-ins" & "grockles" etc. "housed" in "airbnbs"/"new build estates") or to dedicate Herself fully to Herself (the very aspect that makes Her such an attractive proposition), to celebrate what really makes Brixham "Brixham".

To do so knowledge of the past that makes the present in service of the future must be celebrated! Only Brixham can do this for herself, no one else can & why would Brixham ever want anyone to "try" only to fail to do so? That's not Brixham.

01/04/2026

In answer to a question posed at the Brixham Community Hub page:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/615702304077667

Brixham Trust is, at present, a loose network of individuals & community groups working together to make Brixham the very best Brixham it can be by reviving heritage & cultural customs once regular fixtures of the local, Devon & national calendar, we are doing this because we want to reinforce the sense of genuine community borne of Brixham itself by celebrating its unique history & heritage.

By contributing to the sense of what Brixham actually is, what it owes to the past & what it can do for itself in future, we want to leave no opportunity for anyone to say "isn't it sad / if only someone would... / remember when we used to have..." & so on - common utterances in the face of the increasingly anonymous & characterless world here in Brixham & everyone else all over the planet is being made a "family member" of, see the state of Fore Street for a good example with the many empty premises some of which have not been maintained appropriately yet remain "empty" all due to "custom" of the £ kind "going" to transnational entities such as "supermasrkets" & "online marketplaces" resulting in the former business occupants of said empty premises being unable to compete with transnational business interests leveraging their "globe-spanning" status to "set up shop" wherever they please & offer goods at "discount"/cheaper prices (the reasons for this "funny money" business model & its ruinous consequences, for everyone, is a subject for another post...)

Things have changed greatly in recent decades both here & elsewhere across the planet & the sense of dislocation in the "global world" is stark compounded by reminiscences of the connections once so cherished, Brixham Trust is working to address this with our recent Wassail at Wishings Field in Brixham + our planned May Day festival in collaboration with some of the Brixham Schools + our work to revive the town carnival in collaboration with Fishermen's Mission Devon.

By reviving our customs we will contribute to making Brixham what it is by making where it has come from & where it can take itself by its own hands central once more to the sense Brixham has of itself.

As well as the High Festival events we are also working on a very long term project to revive food production in the locale: seasonal produce - with as many close to Brixham varieties as possible, the apple tree sapling we brought with us to the Wassail was a Paignton variety: the Paignton Marigold... & as part of this effort, among others, we want to show that Brixham does not "need" to keep on "growing" via the clearly false promise of "housing developments" = "prosperity" (if this were the case, at least as far as Brixham is concerned, the past decade of house building around the town would have clearly achieved this... yet look at the state of the place inspite of what's left of Brixham based businesses & work opportunities + so very many people volunteering their time to do everything they can to make Brixham the very best place it can be - no easy task when global interests undermine & undercut local business resulting in less work & less money kept in the locale with the obvious knock-on effect being so many people being unable to afford a simple place to call their own whether with or without family!)

We support genuine Brixham efforts to keep Brixham... Brixham! We want to revive work opportunities, such as food production, that once meant the locale was genuinely local - where Brixham ate its own food (beyond the fish landed here), where folk had a much broader opportunity to earn an honest crust & to be able to invest it here in Brixham than they do today! This means we do not simply oppose "housing developments" we work towards making Brixham a place where Brixham can stand on its own two feet free from offers of "support/donation" from sources outside of Brixham... so, a BIG PROJECT with many "irons in the fire", some already wielded & others at various stages of readiness, we continue our work with an eye on success & Brixham at its Best!

26/03/2026

This afternoon, in the company of Brixham Arts & Theatre Society, we enjoyed a meeting with Brixham C of E Primary School at which plans for the May Day festival were discussed, the mood was buoyant & a clearer idea of the event schedule & who will do what was established.

Our May Day plan is not a rival event to the Pirate Festival & will be taking place on the morning of Friday 1st May involving school children from some of the Brixham & other local schools.

Though a draft event plan has already been submitted to Torbay Council, so as to get our proposal on the list of submissions, with the agreed involvement of the C of E & other Brixham & Galmpton schools a revised plan will be submitted for consideration.

We are hopeful that the event can take place at the preferred location of Furzeham Green, but if this cannot happen this year we have an alternate location on stand-by. The reason for seeking to host the May Day festival on Furzeham Green is because historically it was one of the main locations in Brixham on which fairs & the like took place, by being able to hold our May Day event at Furzeham Green we will be reviving the custom of its use in this capacity.

Brixham Trust wants to contribute to Brixham being the very best Brixham it can be, we want the heritage, history, land & sea of Brixham - without which we would have nothing - to be celebrated front & centre here in Brixham & by doing so reinforce community ties providing Brixham with the chance to know itself & keep itself as it knows best.

19/03/2026

Today is the Spring or Vernal Equinox, the term "equinox" comes from Latin aequus, meaning "equal", and nox, meaning "night" & as we have increasingly seen the days are getting longer & the nights are getting shorter & now we're at the mid-point of the yearly calendar between the Winter Solstice & the Summer Solstice.

"Vernal" means "of or relating to spring, appearing or occurring in spring, appropriate to or suggesting spring; springlike, belonging to or characteristic of youth" First recorded in 1525–35; from Latin vernālis, equivalent to vern(us) “of spring” ( vēr “spring” + -nus adjective suffix) + -ālis.

Brixham Trust's aims include contributing to broader efforts here in Brixham & the wider locale to revive a sense that Brixham can take care of itself, that Brixham can be in command of its own destiny, that Brixham has the energy & potential to make of itself what it will - to be Spring-like - without interference from global interests that undermine community, heritage, history, customs & try to replace them with nondescript "could be anywhere, could be anything" same "events/celebrations" & in doing so work against anywhere being able to be itself - its unique self unlike anywhere else on Earth, that work against every specific place, village, town, city, whether here in England or anywhere else in the world from being able to do anything other than sadly refrain "things aren't like what they used to be / isn't it sad / why won't someone do something?"

Spring is here! The wheel of the year keeps turning! Brixham can do it!

05/03/2026

Regarding our plans for the May Day festival, a tree planting programme & for a revival of the town carnival we have received positive & enthusiastic responses to these plans from Brixham Council, Torbay Council, the Fisherman's Mission & the local schools + Brixham folk whilst out & about.

We continue to discuss plans & draw up our applications for submission to the relevant bodies before announcing what will or will not be happening, some of our plans may not turn out to be as "grand"/everything we could hope for as they could be, at least not for this year, but as these plans are "the first of their kind", so to speak, we shall use them as a basis from which to grow in the coming years.

Brixham Trust

04/05/2026

02/05/2026

01/05/2026

29/04/2026

25/04/2026

14/04/2026

04/04/2026

01/04/2026

26/03/2026

19/03/2026

05/03/2026

Address

Website

Alerts

Shortcuts

Share

Category