Brithdir Mawr Housing Co-op

We’re a housing co-op, stewarding approx 85 acres of land including meadows, grazing fields, old woodland and coppice. The human hub is an old farmhouse with additional converted outbuildings, all of which houses between 10 and 20 adults at any time, and any number of children. Our housing co-op currently rents this all from a landlord but we are hoping to raise capital to buy the land and put it into a Land Trust to protect it for future generations. We are very focused on not harming the earth and try to live our lives as best we can by minimising waste (esp plastics), minimal inputs from outside eg making our own compost, minimal fossil fuel use, growing our own food and off grid energy.

The land here is very stunning, we get lots of visitors from other parts of the UK who love the wildness and peacefulness. There are many natural springs (which supplies all our water), and we’re situated at the bottom of a special mountain Cairn Inglis, and a walk away from an ancient woodlands, and also the village of Tredaeth (Newport in English). Volunteers come for our volunteer weeks throughout the year, and also longer term 6month volunteers. They often come for the outdoor and physical lifestyle and to learn new skills, eg working with animals, food growing or wood (coppicing / green woodwork).
We’re currently working on our internal vision and processes; one of the most important things about living in community is learning how to work with group dynamics. As conflict is inevitable, we need to learn how to hold it, so we’ve been gradually working on implementing new practises and processes to support our relationships and build resilience.
We really want to keep being engaged with the wider community, through education and events and are beginning to plan how we can be making products to take to the local market and other local sales outlets. This has happened in the past and there is a desire for it to start again.

We also run a camping field in summer months and have a field with compost toilets for hire. We recently hosted ‘Natural Academy’ who are an Eco-psychology training organisation who brought their students here for a weekend and a subsequent week-long immersion.

We are very grateful to local organisations and people who support us, as well as local famers who offer guidance and support, previous community members who still visit and support us, and the wider communities in this valley.
Also Shift Bristo run a Permaculture course who, up until Covid, had brought groups here every year.