Grace and Ja head up Meadowbrook. They settled in Wiltshire in 2014 after spending a decade living in (sometimes sunny but mostly windy) Cornwall. Both childhoods were spent in Sussex. In fact, they knew one another as kids, eventually becoming childhood sweethearts. Many years later and between them they now keep a growing flock of chickens, ducks, rabbits, a cockatiel and a border collie. Most importantly they are raising two rather cool kids called Mason and Arwen.
They have a shared love of extensive tea-drinking, the great outdoors and binge-watching good box sets. Together they walked the length of the Kennet and Avon Canal (Reading to Bristol) in 2021 and still didn’t get sick of each other’s company.
Grace and Ja enjoy joint adventures and creating a place like Meadowbrook may well be one of their biggest adventures to date……
Co-founder/ Director
Grace D is a creative soul with a head full of ideas and busy hands. She loves mooching in charity shops and exploring the great outdoors. Grace is the bookworm of the pair and has an endless pile of unread books that she will ‘definitely’ get round to reading. Swimming is her go-to for time out. As a kid she collected postage stamps, fruit stickers, agate, and hedgehogs (not real ones). As a grown-up she collects wooden rulers, vintage tins, art books and library fines. Her excuse for her ‘collections’ is that they feed into her work as a Community Artist. Grace never fails to get excited when she sees folk discovering their creativity in her sessions.
She has delivered visual arts sessions in libraries, classrooms, shopping centres, care settings, canal boats and in a veritable assortment of community centres. Grace has worked with many local organisations - Back on Track Stroke Rehab charity, Celebrating Age Wiltshire, Wiltshire Service Users Network, The Pause Project (council-run), Headway Salisbury, Kennet and Avon Canal Ministries, Trowbridge Future charity, a local peer-led service users’ group and various other community groups too. She was Artist in Residence in 2019/2020 at Gillingham Library in Dorset over a 3-month period as part of the ‘Libraries as Cultural Hubs’ Scheme. She studied illustration at Uni but is happiest dipping her toe into a whole assortment of arty methods.
Over recent years she secured funding from Seedbank Wiltshire, Arts Council England, and Sputnik Patrons Scheme.
Grace has been enjoying spreading her social enterprise wings after completing a year-long Start-up programme in 2021 with the School of Social Entrepreneurs. Grace is happiest when she feels she is making a difference, whether on her doorstep or further afield. She volunteered as team leader at Storehouse Foodbank over several years as well as working as PA to two local females with learning disabilities. She proudly served as trustee for the charity ’Dominion Schools Africa’ that supports primary school education in Kenya. Grace worked p/t for a year at The Lookout Day Nursery near Bath; a child-led setting rooted in nature and creativity. She now home-educates her daughter alongside growing this enterprise.
Co-founder/ Director
Ja is at his happiest when he is outdoors. He is a year-round shorts wearer and can usually be found planning yet another epic cycle ride or concocting another crazy physical feat to undertake for charity. Ja discovered yoga a few years back and is now both a bonified fan as well as teaching it. He loves listening to film scores and is a passionate Spurs fan (don’t hold that against him). He’s a dab hand at taking close-up photos of fungi and still knows lots of Latin names for trees.
Ja has worked for British Airways, ran his own Tree Surgery and Gardening business, worked for a Mental Health charity where he worked in partnership with organisations such as Natural England, The Forestry Commission, West Wilts Wildlife, National Trust, English Heritage, Chippenham Borough Lands, Wiltshire Council, Salisbury Council, Action for River Kennet, Bath Vets (ARK) and others too. He works as a freelance gardener as well as teaching yoga in two local fitness communities. He is part way through training to be a Personal Trainer with one of these local communities.
He’s been involved in mentoring, led youth work over many years with wife Grace and makes a mean rice pudding! Ja’s collecting habits involve a lot of road-bike kit and a lot of cool Scalextric cars. He belongs to a local slot car club where he and son Mason compete in mammoth (aka ‘insane’) 24-hour events. Ja won ‘Student of the Year’ award from Duchy College when studying Horticulture and this fancy award now gathers dust next to his row of unread books (Ja is not really a reader)
Non-executive director
Grace F is inspiring, motivated, and not afraid to just give things a jolly good crack. Grace is now a keen runner (much to her own surprise!) and loves nothing more than a good stomp out in the field in her wellies with her beloved if not somewhat mischievous mutt. Back in 2007 she began building her Wiltshire-based floristry business ‘Young Blooms’ from the ground up. Now she is a true flower power in her industry. Grace is passionate about growing British flowers and has a dedicated growing patch as well as some newly acquired polytunnels.
She loves spreading the flower love through running workshops and has created a real online community through her online Floristry school. When Covid struck she began offering a subscription-based postal service, Bloom Box, that continues to deliver hand-picked seasonal flowers, hand-chosen for customers.Grace recently won the ‘Maker of the Year’ award at the 2021 Creative Bath Awards. She was recognised in #ialso 100 list for 2021 run by f: Entrepreneur; a campaign that highlights female business leaders across the UK.
Grace has even won a bronze medal at RHS Chelsea 2023 which is no feat! She loves championing other businesses and seeing others flourish. Grace is always up for trying new things whether that’s mastering macrame or baking up a new pud of some description. She loves going to hear live music being performed and in fact studied classical music many moons ago! Home is shared with her husband and Winston the dog.
*We love having another Grace on board the Meadowbrook team!
Non-executive director
Neil is an all-round good egg. He loves to cycle most days and is often to be found painting tiny Wargame figures and creating vast sets within the world of Wargame. Neil started life in the Southeast of London but has since spent over 50 good years in the green and pleasant county of Wiltshire*. He has four kids and is a grandparent to many! He shares his home with his wife of 44 years (an impressive tally indeed) and a never-ending stream of small kiddies that she childminds. Neil has always been a chap to give generously of his time.
He has a natural pastoral streak and keeps a watchful eye out for folk that need support, TLC and sometimes a gentle prod! He serves on the Talk Listen Care Team that operates at Chapel Café in Trowbridge as well as supporting the Storehouse Foodbank. He delivers children’s work sessions at West Wilts Vineyard Church and has served in leadership in youth work, local church settings and school governance for literally years and years (He experienced 3 OFSTED inspections which is no mean feat). In the late nineties, Neil was one of the early team that set about championing the need for the Hope Nature Centre in Trowbridge, Wiltshire.
Now an established charity, the centre supports young adults with learning disabilities in a work-like environment.
Neil is wise and perceptive (a bit of a stealth superhero really) and has spent many years employed in residential social work. The latter 20 years have seen him working as a Raw Materials Controller for a local food factory. Neil is a man who will rarely say no to the offer of a good coffee and a mince pie.
*Interesting nugget of info - Neil lived in Melksham as a lad and confesses to having snuck onto the fields at Meadowbrook to play there as a wee nipper!
Non-executive director
Julie is a generous-hearted, chatty Geordie who now calls Wiltshire home. Her husband was posted here with the army, and they now have an amazing little girl who keeps them on their toes. Julie embraced her own inner child at age 40 when she finally got to visit Disneyland for the first time! She is a big kid at heart really. Her favourite days are snow days. Time for snowmen, snow angels and the all-important hot chocolate.
Julie has an extensive background in health and social care which includes working with people with dementia, acquired head injuries and mental health.
She’s a lover of learning and in her time has enjoyed being an NVQ assessor as well as tutoring health and social care via long distance. However, it is service delivery that really floats her boat. Until recently she worked as Operations Manager with Victim Support Wiltshire. She now works for Home-Start North Wiltshire supporting families. Before this she worked within a mental health charity enabling people to access conservation and land-based activities.
“Incredible” is how Julie describes seeing up close how a real sense of community and belonging developed during this time
Her experience brought to life the value and impact of being outdoors; working collectively to build and maintain spaces for people to use and benefit from. Julie has nailed what Meadowbrook aspires to be! She’s a school governor for her local primary school, in particular helping to develop and support wellbeing across the school community. Julie is also a true Terry Pratchett fan and can’t resist dipping into his Discworld series.
Sue Woods
Non-executive director
Sue is one of life’s adventurers who can never resist a chance to take off in her white VW camper van. Orkney is her ‘unofficial’ second home. Sue is endlessly inspired by the wildness of the place, it’s music and heritage and this is literally woven into her many makes. She has a lifelong passion for crafting and textiles. She’s never sat idle; either weaving, quilting, knitting, or stitching.
Or teaching other people how to knit or stitch. Or teaching herself the guitar. Or venturing out on her inflatable kayak. Or going to a folk music gig. Or….! You get the picture. She doesn’t live life at a crazy pace though. Instead, she intentionally squeezes as much goodness out of life as she can. Sue grew up in Zimbabwe before moving back to the UK as a teenager. She raised three sons in Wiltshire whilst working as a social worker. Until recently she worked for many years as a part time Buddhist Chaplain at Erlestoke prison and Ashfield prison.
She ‘retired’ in 2014 from her role as Head of Learning and Development with a NHS Mental Health Trust to set up and roll out a project bringing people together from across the Southwest region to work on suicide prevention. Sue spent years as a trustee with the Gaia House Retreat Centre in Devon and is currently studying at degree level with the University of Bristol. She continues to love exploring the world of folk music, adding to her yarn collection, and plotting her next VW escape….
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