Our setting

Maymessy is based just outside of Wantage in Oxfordshire, set within 24 acres of open countryside with uninterrupted 360-degree views of the Ridgeway. This unique, calm, and rural setting is central to the experience we offer. It provides a peaceful space where people can step away from everyday pressures, feel safe, and reconnect with themselves and others.

Our garden is part of daily life at Maymessy. It offers a calm, purposeful setting for learning. Participants grow food, learn seasonal skills, and take part in regular outdoor activity. The produce is then used in our cookery sessions.

Our team

The team at Maymessy is at the heart of everything we do. Their ability to create a safe and uplifting space transforms practical activities into powerful shared moments. Whether it’s cooking, growing food or learning together, people leave feeling more connected, more confident and more capable — carrying that sense of possibility with them beyond the walls of Maymessy.

  • Anna

    Our founder

    Anna Richards is a qualified teacher with nutritional training from Leiths School of Food and Wine. She founded Maymessy to bring together her experience in education and her passion for food, community and inclusion.

  • Maia

    Our chef and project manager

    Maia brings calm leadership, creativity, and a deep love of food to every session — nurturing confidence and connection through cooking. She also has nutritional training from Leiths.

  • Nix

    Our therapeutic gardener

    With gentle guidance and boundless passion, Nix helps our volunteer gardening group reconnect with nature, learn gardening skills, and grow in more ways than one.

  • Claire

    Our beekeeper

    Claire opens up the world of bees with infectious enthusiasm, inspiring curiosity and respect for the natural world in every group she meets.

  • Pat

    Our kitchen assistant volunteer

    Pat is a wonderful, versatile, and all-round caring person. She volunteers at Maymessy as a kitchen assistant and is both kind and an excellent listener, offering genuine support to our participants.

  • Hazel

    Gardener Volunteer

    Hazel is a keen gardener who has supported schools in developing organic vegetable gardening schemes and plot-to-plate initiatives.

  • Directors

    Volunteering their time

    Mary Hall, together with Tom Skelton and Andrea Hartley, are an invaluable source of support and help with strategic direction at Maymessy.

  • Our Volunteers

    Mostly past participants at Maymessy, they are the heart of the garden and kitchen. With warmth, care and quiet dedication, they make everyone feel welcome and supported.

Our name

The name Maymessy comes from a phrase by the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins, who described blossom-filled hedgerows in spring as a “may-mess.”