Bowden Pillars Future: A Year of Growing Together 2025 in Review
As 2025 draws to a close we can look back on a year defined by momentum, community energy, and the steady unfurling of a regenerative vision. From hands-in-the-soil days to deep community conversations and creative workshops, 2025 has been the year the project began to truly take shape on the land, in the village design process, the planting of the rainforest and in the wider community around Totnes.
Spring: Planting, Co-Shaping and Marking Two Years On
The year began with the continuation of the rainforest creation project, with winter tree-planting days rolling into the early months. By May, the land was buzzing again, this time with volunteers from National Grid helping to plant hundreds of native trees, each one a living investment in the long-term ecology of the Bowden Pillars Temperate Rainforest. In all, we planted over 7,000 trees. Special thanks to The Devon Wildlife Trust, as well as Be The Earth, Eco Restoration Communities and all the volunteers for helping to make this happen.
Late spring marked another turning point. The Village Co-shaping Events brought together prospective residents, neighbours and friends for an afternoon of orienting, imagining and working through the emerging principles and parameters of the village. It was the first major public moment where the design, culture and governance ideas were explored collectively. The energy of the day carried straight into the evening gathering, where we headed to the land to celebrate Bowden Pillars: Two Years On. It was a celebration — quiet, grounded, hopeful — reflecting on what two years of dreaming and steady work had already woven into place. It was a great reminder for us to take moments to reflect and be with all that has emerged so far.
Summer: Learning, Creativity and Ecological Connection
Summer at Bowden Pillars was alive with curiosity and participation. A series of workshops opened the land to new forms of learning:
We learnt about Foraging & Wild Fermentation with Hannah and made brought people into deeper relationship with the edible abundance already present in the hedgerows and fields. Spoon Carving
Reconnecting with the Earth with Earth Paints invited participants to create using pigments gathered from the land, a gentle practice in place-based creativity.
Eco-Communities: Living Questions Session, held in Totnes, offered space to explore the practical, emotional and organisational aspects of building community in regenerative ways. We were happy to be joined by Professor Jenny Pickerill.
These events, diverse in format and tone, all pointed toward the same centre: the desire to build a project rooted in interbeing, resilience and shared stewardship.
Autumn: Seeds, Species and Seasonal Rhythms
As summer turned toward autumn, the focus shifted back toward ecology and biodiversity. Two significant nature-based events took place at Bowden Pillars:
A Tree Seed Collection Day, supporting the ongoing rainforest restoration and the intention for long-term ecological abundance.
An evening Bat Walk, where participants experienced the land at dusk and learned about the species that move through the valley’s twilight corridors.
Both events deepened the growing sense that the future village will not exist merely on the land, but with it — in conversation, in care and in reciprocity.
Late Autumn: Opening the Village Conversation to Town
As the days shortened, Bowden Pillars Future took the next step in community engagement by hosting Village Open Days in Totnes. Held over a weekend — one day at The Mansion and the next at partner community venues — these events invited wider public conversation about the vision, the design process and the unfolding pathway toward planning and development.
It was a chance for those curious about living at Bowden Pillars, collaborating with the project, or simply learning more about regenerative village design to meet the team, ask questions and offer reflections.
Looking Back — and Forward
2025 has been a year of turning ideas into shared understanding, and shared understanding into the early stages of design. It has been a year where hands met soil, voices met each other, and the land continued to reveal its needs and possibilities.
If 2023 was the year of planting intentions, and 2024 the year of preparing the ground, then 2025 has been the year of true co-shaping — the moment when the future village began to feel not just possible, but palpably on its way.
With design work continuing into 2026 and a planning application on the horizon, the seeds planted this year — literal and metaphorical — will continue to root and rise.