Brockham, Surrey · Volunteers since 2013

Providing community support where it’s needed.

The Brockham Emergency Response Team (BERT) is Brockham’s volunteer resilience team — more than fifty trained neighbours ready to help when floods, storms or hard times reach the village.

What we do

Practical help, close to home.

Flood & storm response

We turn out in severe weather to move sandbags, steer water away from homes and check on elderly and vulnerable residents.

Ditches & drains

Organised working parties keep the village’s ditches, gullies and drains running clear before the winter rain arrives.

Prescriptions & shopping

Volunteers collect prescriptions for the housebound and do essential shopping for anyone who cannot get out.

Food boxes & alerts

We pack and deliver food boxes for local families, and run a community email service for news and severe-weather warnings.

Become a volunteer Support our work Subscribe to Alerts

In brief

2013Formed by neighbours after the December floods swept through Brockham’s lanes, gardens and front rooms.

50+Trained adult volunteers, plus a dozen young volunteers under eighteen — all from the village and around it.

2018Awarded the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service, the highest honour a volunteer group can receive.

Our story

It began with a flood.

In December 2013, days of heavy rain sent the River Mole over its banks and into Brockham’s lanes, gardens and front rooms. Neighbours bailed out neighbours by torchlight.

When the water finally fell, the people who had waded it decided the village should never meet the next flood unprepared. That group became BERT. In January 2017 it was registered as a charity under the name Community Support in the Countryside.

It is funded entirely by local donations and fundraising — every pump, sandbag and pair of waders paid for by the community it looks after.

The Mole in spate — Brockham, December 2013

National recognition

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service

In June 2018, BERT was one of nine Surrey groups to receive the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service — the highest award a voluntary group can be given, equivalent to an MBE. On 8 July, volunteers, trustees and guests gathered on Brockham Green to see the award presented to BERT’s chairman, Bob Thomas, by the Lord-Lieutenant of Surrey, Michael More-Molyneux.

Outstanding community support in action.Surrey Lieutenancy

Get involved

Lend a hand, or a hand up.

Brockham looks after its own. Here are three ways to be part of it.

Join BERT

Hands-on volunteering — working parties, flood response and training. If you can offer time and energy, we will train you for the rest.

Email to join

Become a BEV

A Brockham Emergency Volunteer helps from home — a phone call to a neighbour, a lift into town, a spare room in a crisis. Every offer counts.

Donate

BERT is funded entirely by local giving. Donations buy pumps, sandbags, waders and protective kit for the team.

Donate via JustGiving

Prefer a cheque? Make it payable to “Community Support in the Countryside” and send it to Trevor Anderson, BERT Treasurer, 52 Brockham Lane, Brockham RH3 7EH. Other ways to give are available on request.