In Transition Haslemere's December 2025 newsletter, they have:

• green drinks

• books wanted

• new bridge?

• live simply

• local power

• wassail help

• fruit trees

• Christmas market

• Rising Down

• Yoells Copse

Green drinks
We have lots to talk about including a proposed bridge between Tesco and the leisure centre, a campaign to encourage more swifts to nest in the town and COP30. After which, we will enjoy a Christmas toast. From 7.30pm on Thursday 4 December in the Snug at The Mill in Critchmere Lane. 

Books wanted
We still need books for our stall at Haslemere's Christmas Market. Paperback fiction and non-fiction as well as children's and young adults' books. If you have books to donate, email us on info@transitionhaslemere.org to arrange a collection or drop off. The market will be from 10am to 4pm on Sunday 7 December.

Have a say on the bridge
Haslemere Town Council is seeking your views on a potential new bridge over the railway line, linking Tesco and the Leisure Centre. This pedestrian and cycle bridge would offer step-free access, ease congestion, encourage walking and cycling, and help reduce pollution — all without direct cost to local taxpayers. The poll is open to 18 December. Help shape the town's future by completing the survey, which can be found here.

New community website
Live Simply Haslemere is a new website developed by Haslemere's Roman Catholic Church to provide a community platform for ideas, resources and links for parishioners and other residents to encourage sustainable living. As its mission statement says:  “Embracing a simpler way of living is not just a personal choice; it is a collective responsibility. As we face the pressing challenges of our time, we must recognise that our current lifestyle is threatening the future of life on Earth. By adopting simplicity, we can create a more sustainable, fulfilling, and connected existence.”

Local power for local people
Power For the People has drafted a Local Electricity Bill which would give small-scale renewable energy a massive boost by empowering communities to sell energy that they generate directly to local people. A cross-party Early Day Motion that calls on the Government to promptly implement local purchasing of community energy has been put down in Parliament. You can help make this happen by asking our local MP to sign it. More information here, here and here.

Help wanted for wassail
The wonderful wassail will take place on Friday 16 January 2026 from 6pm to 9pm. If you can help with food preparation, drinks, stewarding, or general set-up and tidy-up please contact Claire at clairematthes.copse@gmail.com. Food prep will start on the afternoon of Thursday 15 January, with the main preparations and set-up on the Friday from 10am. Tidy-up will happen the following morning Saturday 17 from 10.30am to 12.30pm

Low cost fruit trees

Petersfield Climate Action Network are offering discounted fruit trees for just £21.50. You can find out more here.

Christmas market and repair cafe
We will have our secondhand book stall at the Christmas market in West Street on Sunday 7 December from 10am to 4pm. The Repair Cafe will be at the Swan Inn on Saturday 6 December from 10am to 1pm.

Book of the month: The Rising Down, by Alexandra Harris
Writer and cultural historian Alexandra Harris grew up in Pulborough and she scours public records, biographies and the landscape itself to create a vivid history of place, lives and changing times. Captivating.

Tree of the month: Yoells Copse

Clive Davidson writes: “Recently, Gareth Matthes and I visited Yoells Copse, Horndean, in the company of John Vigay, who has been a tree warden for the area for 35 years. John, who is now 92, was instrumental in campaigning to save the copse from a housing development which now surrounds it. The copse is 13 acres of ancient woodland. Twenty nine ancient woodland indicator plants have been identified there, as well as rare mosses, lichen and brambles. Yoells Copse also has a number of wild service trees (Torminalis glaberrima)– at least four mature trees over 50 foot, as well as a number of younger specimens. There are also a number of whitebeams (Aria edulis) that have grown upright and very tall among the wild service, beech and oak. They have a very different shape from the whitebeam we see on Black Down and Hindhead Common. The oaks in the copse are predominantly sessile (Quercus petraea) with some hybrid sessile/pendunculate (Quercus robur), known as rose oaks (Q x rosacea).The photo shows John with the biggest of the wild service trees."

Editor: Clive Davidson
Transition Haslemere
info@transitionhaslemere.org