Pioneering, community-owned farm to construct a new eco-building that will house a tea room and educational facilities

Fordhall farm in Shropshire, which was saved from developers by a historical community buyout, is now giving people the chance to part-own a tea room. It is the face of a development programme with the potential to cement Fordhall as a 21st century model for sustainable farming at the heart of community.

In 2006 more than 8,000 people around the world, wanting to support small-scale farming, bought non profit-making shares in the Fordhall Community Land Initiative (FCLI) — a co-operative society. Aided in part by donations and loans, a remarkable £800,000 was raised in less than 6 months, enabling FCLI to buy Fordhall and making it England’s first community-owned farm.

Marking a new chapter in the farm’s evolution, an eco-renovation programme will see its old dairy building offer a tea room, serving local, homemade produce; teaching, office and activity spaces; and an improved butchery and farm shop selling Fordhall’s organic meat. The tea room will run as a social enterprise, reinvesting profits into educational initiatives. To fund the new developments, FCLI are re-advertising their share offer. “These buildings and the things we can do with them are the mechanism to go forward,” says Charlotte Hollins, FCLI manager.

Charlotte and Ben Hollins, aged 28 and 26, grew up at Fordhall, which has been worked by the family for three generations. Their late father, organic pioneer Arthur Hollins — also one of Britain’s first yoghurt producers — was passionate about the benefits of chemical-free farming with high standards of animal welfare.

When Arthur passed away, Charlotte and Ben took over the farm, which was in need of repair. Because the family did not own the land, having always been tenants, the threat of Fordhall being sold for development continually loomed. They faced eviction but were determined to continue their father’s legacy and unable to afford a mortgage, they had to find another way of securing it. Driven by their passion and youthful energy, and with the help of those who rallied behind their plight, FCLI was born and the farm saved.

As tenants with a long-term lease for the farmland and buildings, Charlotte and Ben went on to transform the business so that it thrived again. Meanwhile, as the landowner, FCLI uses the site for community benefit through access to green spaces, events, volunteering and educational visits, while ensuring that farming will remain a viable livelihood for many generations to come.

Behind Fordhall’s success is a belief in the power of community. “People can do anything,” affirms Charlotte. “People put barriers in front of themselves before they’ve even tried — it’s a society thing, a mind-set. But actually communities can come together and it’s about them doing it as a group, consulting each other and understanding people’s differences. What we did showed that whatever challenge you are facing, environmental, social or otherwise, if everyone does a little bit, it can actually make a big difference. More than anything else, I think that was the wonderful positive message that came out of what we did.”

By buying shares, at £50 each, members of the public can become part owners of Fordhall farm forever and be entitled to a vote at FCLI’s annual general meeting. Now that planning permission has been granted, the FCLI needs to raise a further £50,000 through the share scheme and donations to enable the developments to happen. It is hoped the new tea room will open in April 2011.

“This step is massive for the farm,” Ben says. “We’ve been building up to it since it was saved.” He explains that it represents the fulfilment of their vision for more people to be able to reconnect with food production and farming.

The new facilities will allow Fordhall to run a number of short courses. “We’ve just planted an orchard, so we want to run training in orchard management,” says Charlotte, “as well as in bread making and cookery. The idea will be to bring back enthusiasm for the food culture we have lost.” Farming courses linked with local agricultural colleges are also planned, as well as other environmental programmes.

A key initiative that the renovations will also make possible is a new two-year ‘care farming’ project, for which FCLI are now writing a funding bid. A growing movement in the UK, care farming uses farm activity programmes to provide health, social or educational services for disadvantaged groups of people.

“We’ll be working with young people that aren’t catered for in the school environment and are better outdoors, are more practical,” says Charlotte, adding that although it would be outdoor based, the new development makes the project feasible. “The person responsible for the young people needs space to do admin work and we need sufficient toilet facilities to adhere to health and safety law.” Likewise, the building would open up new potential for their volunteer programmes. “The renovations will provide the indoor dry space and catering facilities to deal with groups of people,” Charlotte says.

While preserving the farm’s heritage by retaining the traditional look of the old dairy building, the plan is to modernise it with environmentally friendly design and materials, including a timber frame and reclaimed bricks, a green roof canopy, photovoltaic panels and a ground source heat pump.

“We want windows so you can see the sheep wool insulation in the walls, and monitoring equipment for the renewable energies,” explains Charlotte, who intends it to be a practical demonstration of sustainability. “Just showing it is possible is important,” she believes. “People have contacted me saying things like: “you’ve inspired us to raise the money to buy this old mill, which was going to be knocked down, but we are going to do all these wonderful things with it” — What’s really important for us to do is to stay as an exemplar project; to actually make it work.”

As unprecedented and impressive as winning the fight to save the farm was, Charlotte and Ben’s mission has become about more than preserving their way of life. As well as ensuring the future of Fordhall and widening its social benefit, they are pushing the boundaries of the business model.

“Community ownership in lots of different scenarios is something that we want to be more involved in and contributing towards,” says Charlotte, who hopes the new development will catalyse the farm’s full potential. “Once this infrastructure is in place, it takes Fordhall to the next level and starts to turn us into a really sustainable social enterprise,” she says.

“If we’re providing enough revenue, it can then potentially fund me or someone else to go out and help other projects to establish themselves. Rather than just being an example with knock-on effects — which is wonderful — we could really be actively pushing it forward.”

Contact: The Fordhall Community
Land Initiative, Fordhall Farm,
Market Drayton, Shropshire, TF9 3PS
Website: www​.fordhallfarm​.com

Charlotte and Ben Hollins
outside the Fordhall farm shop,
part of the old dairy
Photo: copyright FCLI