| Description | We are a long-established community of approximately 15-20 people aged from 7 to 87 running an adult residential college/retreat centre which hosts visiting groups on courses, retreats, workshops and events. The main mansion house, often described as an 'architechtural treasure', is a Grade II listed building featuring guest accomodation for over 30 people, and various spaces within the house and the grounds are available for hire. Community members also share responsibility for 55 acres of land in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, including formal gardens, a vegetable garden and orchard, greenhouse and polytunnel, a campsite with compost toilets and open air showers, and grassland which is grazed by Jacob sheep. We also keep pigs and chickens, and are working towards self-sufficiency. Supervised outdoor work is done Tuesday-Thursdays and special estate weekend events (see WWOOF News for dates); at other times work centres around the House and catering and caring for our guests, including cooking, cleaning and hosting duties. Volunteers from around the world are welcome to join us in these endeavours, to share and learn new skills and to explore relationships to each other, nature and society, so that we can co-operate in taking constructive action in the world today. In the words of its founder Norman Glaister, the aim of our community is "making conscious in ourselves the process of which we are a part, so that we may facilitate its devlopment more efficiently..." . NB Vegetarians and Vegans please note that we keep livestock for meat consumption. |
