“Hope is a muscle. The more you exercise it, the more of it there is.”
Author Anita Roy relocated to Wellington from New Delhi in 2015, trading the bustling metropolis of 28 million for a semi-rural Somerset town of around 18,000 residents.
“That’s how many people I used to have round for dinner back in India!” she joked.
Many of her friends expected her to move to London, and were surprised when she chose Wellington instead. Questions about boredom and activity opportunities followed.
As it turned out, Anita found plenty to do-scything meadows, pressing apples, and foraging for rhubarb, quinces, apples, and plums. These are practices our ancestors regularly undertook before the industrial revolution but are now rare skills.
Anita chairs Transition Town Wellington (TTW), one of many groups nationwide dedicated to environmental protection and climate change preparedness.
Among the members is a national champion scyther who has trained a dozen locals in the craft. While scything may seem unusual, it benefits Wellington’s wildlife by allowing creatures to avoid harm more easily than with lawnmowers or threshing machines. Anita shared a photograph of a slow worm basking unharmed in the sunshine on a meadow.
Importantly, scything prevents meadows from becoming overgrown while fostering diverse wild plants and flowers, unlike the monocultural lawns maintained by conventional methods.
During autumn, apple pressing turns fruit that might otherwise go to waste into beloved cider. Foraging for walnuts and blackberries around town provides a tasty alternative to supermarket fruit, which often arrives wrapped in plastic and transported over long distances.
TTW provides a foraging map, encouraging residents to enjoy the natural produce freely available in their surroundings. This simple yet remarkable approach underscores the town’s commitment to sustainability.
Wellington offers a rare and valuable commodity: hope.
Members of TTW are optimistic without being naïve. They recognise the environmental challenges that could cause concern, but see positivity as a proactive stance.
“One motto we have is ‘hope with its sleeves rolled up’,” Anita said with a smile.
The community’s efforts are evident; TTW has partnered with the Woodland Trust to plant 3,500 trees over 2024 and 2025.
With worries about future floods, droughts, poor harvests, and depleted reservoirs, these trees represent a hopeful legacy.
“I can take a child by the hand and say, ‘when I planted this it was the same size as you. Imagine how big it will be when you’re my age!’”
Locally, the community support for these initiatives is strong. Wellington Town Council played a key role by leasing 65-and-a-half acres as a ‘green corridor’ dedicated to wildlife and biodiversity-a lease lasting 150 years.
Life in Wellington is not without its challenges. Infrastructure concerns have persisted over time.
One longtime resident joked, “If you go to Superdrug you better take a sandwich and cup of tea, because you’re going to be there a while.”
The town faced a shortage of pharmacies after Jhoots and Boots both closed in 2025, leaving just two outlets for its population. Thankfully, a new pharmacy opened earlier this year with much-needed fanfare.
Wellington is also experiencing growth. Patricia Dylan, secretary of Wellington Museum who has lived locally for 55 years, voiced concerns about the town’s capacity to support an expanding population.
“Three hundred houses here, three hundred houses there,” she said. “They say there’s plenty of space but there’s only one secondary school in town.”
Despite such hurdles, life in Wellington conveys optimism-not the kind of hope that ignores problems, but one that confronts them directly.
For Anita, Wellington represents a unique harmony: “I don’t know what it is about Wellington, but it just seems like there’s always the right people with the right skills we need.”