Our story
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 (especially plastics), minimal inputs from outside e.g. 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 6-month 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.
Our advice
1. Suppling our own energy: having solar, hydro and wind power for our combined energy source works well so that when one drops low, another can fill in the gap
2. Having educational visits from local school classes so they can see how we generate energy and grow our own food and so we are more integrated in the local community. This year we also supported two young adult Kickstarter placements to work here for 6 months.
3. Having volunteer weeks where a group of volunteers come and stay and get involved with a particular project and learn new skills eg a building a new structure, or learning to coppice, as well as having fun. They learn, and we gain their practical help.
4. Preserving our foods: we preserve a lot from our own garden produce, and a key product is making 250-400 jars of passata for us to eat throughout winter.
5. Managing our woodlands to generate our own firewood (our source of heating for warmth and cooking) whilst caring for biodiversity
6. Having good relationships with local residents, producers, businesses, schools and colleges, so we are working co-sufficiently eg helping each other out by sharing skills and resources as well as swapping and bartering.
Our metrics
The number of homes and community members we benefit.
