Off the Grid Community

[madlookin]

and there was this fella....who won!
http://www.thisisgloucestershire.co.uk/ ... story.html

[Tomblake8]

Hi all! it seems this thread is still quite active from reading it its been ongoing for over a year now, does anyone know how dave got on with the land? Im lookin for a community to join and could bring a small ( I guess) sum to help with from sale of my house. Im a roof tiler by trade but have done lots of other buiding work, timber frames etc, no one has mentioned cob builds yet. It would need rendering annually coz of our weather but is a great material, being fireproof is a huge bonus. If the thread is still active would be great to hear from someone about progress.

Thanks guys,
Tom

[Papillon]

One could look for existing "bandwagons" to hitch a ride on that are going in very roughly the same direction. For example, there is a huge amount of activity by eco-nuts, who might not be particularly concerned (as we might be) with freedom and self-ownership but perhaps useful allies.

I see that if I start typing "alternative" into Google, its auto-suggestions include "alternative communities uk," which led (as a random example) to this site: http://www.diggersanddreamers.org.uk/

[Freeman Stephen]

the "diggers" part of diggers and dreamers is from the "diggers" political movement of cromwells time who seeking the freedom and abundance of nature that the norman conquest had denied went about "digging" common land but were soon to be suppressed by cromwell.

the idea of freedom goes back further than the idea of obedience to a state.

[Papillon]

Ok, I just glanced at it. Thanks for the clarification. Here was I associating the word digger with gold miners or maybe gardening.

[madlookin]

first time i visited this community was when i was 16...didn't know any history of the place...remember thinking the houses looked American....it seams at the time "tptb" where threatened by these free thinkers...

Home Office sought to wipe out 'beastly' commune!

Home Office officials tried to shut down a prototype "free: love" hippy commune in the 1920s, according to official papers released yesterday. Files from the 1920's released to the Public Record Office showed that officials regarded the Whiteways Colony in Gloucestershire as a security risk. The commune had been created in the Cotswold Hills near Stroud around the turn of the century, attracting an assortment of socialists, pacifists, "free thinkers and refugees." "Manners had they none and their customs are beastly," wrote an official in 1925.Police paid a husband and wife £400 to infiltrate the commune in the hope of finding evidence of their unspeakable activities.The couple emerged claiming that "promiscuous fornication " was indeed a feature of life in the colony, but they were unable to produce proof. The Home Office could not even work up popular agitation against the commune, as local residents viewed members as cranks rather than as objects of fear.
Morning Star March 12 1999

wiki says

Whiteway Colony is a residential community in the Cotswolds in the parish of Miserden near Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK. The community was founded in 1898 by Tolstoyans and today has no spare land available with over sixty homes and one hundred and fifty colonists.[1] At the beginning private property was rejected and personal property shared, however today the colonists homes are privately owned and sold at market value.[2][3] As the colony abandoned Tolstoy's philosophy it has been regarded by many, including Mohandas Gandhi who visited in 1909, as a failed Tolstoyan experiment.

a few links below for anyone interested
http://englishbuildings.blogspot.com/20 ... shire.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whiteway_Colony
http://www.utopia-britannica.org.uk/pages/whiteway.htm

[helena]

madlookin, Mr. Fidler (great name btw) fell foul because he concealed the building and because he hadna moved the haybales they said the works were not substantially completed. This guy took the piss in my view anyways. the 4 year rule applies to any building, four years from when it is substantially completed and it also applies to when you change the use of any building to a dwelling house. doesna mean they can't come after after you for the change of use though which is the 10 year rule. ie. changing the use of agricultural land to residential.