Record Christmas Tree Collection

A dedicated team of volunteers has once again taken to the streets of our community to collect a record-breaking number of Christmas Trees, all in aid of raising money for Dorothy House. We are delighted to announce that in 2026 we had our biggest year yet, collecting more than 7,200 trees and raising an incredible £153,000! 

Vans went out across our 800sq mile area, in cities, towns, villages and hamlets and out to the furthest reaches of Somerset and Wiltshire.  A huge thank you to everyone who booked in to have their tree collected, especially to those who were extra patient whilst it took us a little longer than the original weekend to collect all those trees.   

This collection sees us partner with JustHelping, a national charity that supports collections all over the country. As their biggest collector for 2026, we were lucky enough to have a visit from Founder and Chair of Trustees of JustHelping, Nick Stammers, who came into Bath to meet the team of volunteers heading out on Saturday 10th January. He established JustHelping back in 2012, and had this to say: 

“Dorothy House was our biggest collection this year, you have smashed our record, what a fantastic job everyone has done. Every tree that goes into landfill accounts for 16kg of carbon, which is the equivalent of heating your home for two days and lighting your home for two weeks, with all the trees we collected this year, that is around the equivalent to 1000 transatlantic flights from London to New York; that is the impact we are having on the environment.” 

We also partnered again with Wiltshire College at their Lackham site, which saw trees from Chippenham, Corsham and Calne taken and chipped by the College team and a chipper from R2 Contracting. Some of the trees collected have been saved so that students on their Agriculture and Countryside Management courses can learn how to safely chip trees. 

Chippings from the collection every year are used right here in the grounds of Dorothy House, particularly within our Firefly Woods. You can find out more about the Firefly Woods here. 

We would like to thank each and every volunteer who gave up their time and energy to support with collecting all the trees, without whom we could not have raised such a brilliant amount of money to care for patients and families across our community. 

A huge number of local businesses and groups were integral to this year’s collection, providing vans and chippers, sharing the word about our collection and hosting tree drop off points. 

 

Each year, a percentage of the money raised by the collection is given to other local charities and organisations, particularly those closes connected to the work of Dorothy House. The charities are nominated by staff and volunteers who support the collection. 

We have already pledged £1,000 each to three fantastic local partner charities – cold-water therapy charity IceBreakers Bath, The Urban Garden and Grow for Life. They all play a vital role in highlighting the many mental health benefits of nature. We’re delighted to be able to support these wonderful local causes which bring people into connection with nature and support the mental health and wellbeing of many members of our shared community. 

We have had nominations for other local charities from our wonderful volunteers and will be announcing the other causes we will be supporting from the 2026 collection soon. 

 

We would like to thank: 

• A J Christian Contractors 

• ACF Events 

• Autoguide Equipment 

• Avonfield Kitchen 

• Bath City Football Club 

• Bath Property Guys 

• Bison Waste 

• Blue Leaf Property 

• C&C Tree Services 

• Challenge Tyre and MOT Centre 

• Charity Resource 

• Charlton Park, Malmesbury 

• Church Farm, Winsley 

• Corsham Print 

• Dorothy House Retail Team 

• E&H Drylining & Plastering (South West) Litd 

• E.G. Martin Ltd 

• Frome Carpet and Flooring Centre 

• Gazelle Office Furniture 

• Gem Solutions 

• Geoghegan Builders 

• Go Self Drive 

• HW Facilities Ltd 

• Inspired Joinery, Frome 

• Integrity Print Ltd 

• J.M. O’Toole Ltd 

• JHS Tree Services 

• Keynsham Allotments 

• Kier 

• Kingswood School, Bath 

• Leather Chairs of Bath 

• Lidl, Hungerdown Lane, Chippenham 

• Lynwood Civil Engineering 

• Manor Farm, Chilcompton 

• Medequip Calne 

• Mills Engineering Electrical Division 

• Monarch Joinery 

• Moonraker Beds Ltd 

• N3 Display Graphics 

• NPB Utilities 

• Pearns Tree Services 

• Penguin Learning 

• Pennys Group 

• r2 Contracting 

• Raceahead 

• Richard Heath Landscape 

• Ricky Fenby Ltd 

• Rigg Construction 

• Rock Farm, Shepton Mallet 

• Rotary Club of Frome Town 

• Rotork 

• Serenity Garden Services 

• SLR Lime Plastering 

• Steve Vick International 

• The Holy Cow 

• The Nursery, Trowbridge 

• The Sweeping Company 

• TJ Self Drive Hire 

• Trowbridge Ford 

• VansGB 

• Wessex Water 

• White Row Farm Shop 

• Williams Self Drive 

• Wiltshire Christmas Trees 

• Wiltshire College 

• WRC Tree Surgery 

• XPO Logistics 

There are many more companies and organisations that supported us along the way, so thank you!