Hello,
So many people have been in touch over the last few weeks. It has been wonderful, humbling, inspiring, and motivating, and it has really helped build our enthusiasm for the year ahead.
Thank you to everyone who has offered donations, kind words, and messages of support and encouragement. It does mean a lot to us all.
Around 132 graduates have also been in contact, each with a different life story. Many are doing exceptionally well and value maintaining a long-term connection with LandWorks. Where needed, we have been able to offer support, but for the vast majority it has been the other way around… they want to support us to continue the work we do.
Yesterday, I looked up and there was ‘F’, standing in the car park.
I showed him around, explaining that we had worked together some 26 years ago. F told it slightly differently, telling everyone, about how important it had been for a 16-year-old to be accepted and believed in.
He’s now 42, running his own construction business in the South East – lots of rail work, stations, that sort of thing.
He immediately got LandWorks. He chatted easily with everyone, and it felt to me as though he was recognising something familiar from all those years ago.
I realised how important that long-term connection is for both of us. It felt quietly life-affirming.
Those early years were, as F put it, “life-changing” for him. But it works both ways. I got so much from that time too, learned so much. It was equally life-changing for me.
We went through a lot together. Some years later, two of our colleagues died (separately) as a result of drugs. It was from that tragedy that the idea of LandWorks began to evolve.
Recently, I’ve been feeling a little lost in myself (you’ve possibly noticed) as we try to articulate exactly what it is that makes LandWorks… work.
As an antidote to this, I’ve enjoyed hearing Christmas snippets on the local grapevine about those who once doubted the project, but who now openly claim a share in its success. I see that, in itself, as an outcome.
But seeing F really jolted me into the glaringly obvious. Of course, LandWorks can be replicated. Of course, it requires a particular skill set and a dedicated team to run such a project. But there are definitely plenty of people more than capable of doing this work.
RailWorks has a certain ring to it!
Chris
15th January 2026