Diggers Colony 1649-50?
One of a series of 'other' Diggers colonies. (See St
George's Hill, Surrey for more details)
GRID REF: Possibly on Slimbridge Waste.
REF: World Turned Upside down
Friends Workhouse1696-1720
Quaker poor relief scheme that provided housing and work
for unemployed Quakers.
GRID REF: Location Unknown Bristol
REF: Quakerism & Industry before 1800
Warmley
1760's
FOUNDER/LEADER: W.Champion
Cottages, shops & clock tower built by Quaker industrialist. Cottages
built of basalt slag. (brass foundry waste). Also built housing at Bitton(Glos.)
and Kelston(Somerset).
GRID REF: ST673729
REF: Quakers in Science and Industry
Randwick Experiment
1831-3
FOUNDER/ LEADER : Mary Ann Greaves & James Pierrepont
Greaves
'Social service' scheme to relieve distressed weavers set up by the
sacred socialist & his sister. Food and clothes were
given in exchange for 'community work' around the village. Tools were
supplied and an overseer and record keeper appointed. Roads were improved
by unskilled men, and women taught to make clothes. A local currency
was introduced whereby tokens were issued for work and were exchangeable
for food, clothes, tools, furniture & books.
GRID REF: SO809076
REF: Search for a New Eden.
Lowbands
1846 - 51
FOUNDER/LEADER: F. O'Connor
Second Chartist estate consisting of 23 smallholdings with model cottages
laid out on a network of lanes around a schoolhouse and 10 acre common
water meadow. 22 working horses and rows of fruit trees were provided
along with firewood, manure and seeds. Each cottage had its own water
supply and privy.
GRID REF: SO 775314
REF: The Chartist Land Company
Snigs End
1847 - 51
FOUNDER/LEADER: F. O'Connor
81 plot Chartist estate laid out on 268 acres around the village of
Staunton with model cottages, schoolhouse, roads and pathways. As on
other estates settlers who had won their plots were provided with supplies
of manure, firewood and seed. The third National Chartist petition was
taken to parliament in 1848 on a cart made at Snigs End & pulled
by estate horses.
GRID REF: SO 792288 Staunton
REF: The Chartist Land Company
Kelmscott
Manor 1871- 1896
FOUNDER/LEADER : William Morris
Part-time home of William Morris, inspiration for a whole movement in
architexcture and final destination of the utopian traveller in News
from Nowhere. Morris is buried with his wife & daughters in the
graveyard of the small chapel in Kelmscott village.
GRID REF: SU253987
REF: William Morris. Fiona McCarthy
Kelmscott
manor
Country home of William Morris - poet, craftsman and socialist. The
house contains a collection of Morris possessions and works. He
is buried in the village nearby.
Open April - Sept. Weds and occasional Saturdays
Contact
for details:
Kelmscott Manor. Kelmscott
Nr Lechlade. Glous. GL7 3HJ
Tel: 01367 252486
Website: www.kelmscottmanor.co.uk
Blockley
C1878
FOUNDER/LEADER : William Morris
Half-deserted Cotswold village with abandoned silk mill, that William
Morris surveyed for an Arts & Crafts based community. Morris regretted
being persuaded not to move there by his business partners, setting
up at Merton Abbey instead. (Rock Cottage, Blockley was the last home
of the Prophetess Joanna Southcott.)
GRID REF: SP165349
REF: Designing Utopia. M.H.Lang.
Chipping
Camden 1902-1909
FOUNDER/ LEADER : C.R. Ashbee
Sleepy Cotswold town that became the home for the Guild of Handicrafts.
Some 150 East End craftsmen moved into the town setting up workshops
in the old silkmill just off the centre of town and renting accomodation
throughout the town. The Guild had a major impact on the town both economically
and socially, setting up a band, sports club, drama society and allotment
association and building a swimming pool. Cheap mass produced imitations
of their work led to the end of the Guild.
GRID REF: SP151388
REF: The Simple Life. Fiona McCarthy
The
Guild of Handicraft Trust
Small
museum set in the mill used by C.R. Ashbees Guild of Handicrafts.
Exhibits include work of the Guild and other local craft workers.
For
opening times and admission charges Contact
: The Silk Mill. Sheep St.
Chipping Campden. Glous. GL55 6DS
Tel: 01386 859135
Email: gofhtrust@ukonline.co.uk
Broad
Campden 1908-1914
70 acres bought by soap magnate Joseph Fels as smallholdings
for the craftsmen of the Guild of Handicrafts after the Guild had ceased.
GRID REF: SP158378
REF: The Simple Life. Fiona McCarthy
Whiteway
1898 - Present
42acre holding taken by a breakaway from the Tolstoyan
colony at Purleigh. Originally a communal group in Whiteway House surrounded
by open fields the colony became a thriving anarchist community over
the years developing into a patchwork of smallholdings with people living
in a variety of homemade sheds, huts, houses and railway carriages etc.
In 1924 a colony hall was erected to house social activities and a school
house and in 1969 the colony swiming pool was opened. Still operating
under their original constitution they are the longest surviving secular
community in the country.
GRID REF: S0 919105
REF: Whiteway Colony.Joy Thacker
Sapperton
Workshops 1901 -
FOUNDER/LEADER : Ernest Gimson / Sidney Barnsley.
Loose Arts & Crafts based community that grew up around workshops
of Gimson & Barnsley. Rented Daneway house and built 3 houses.
GRID REF: SO946032
REF:The Arts & Crafts Movement. E.Cumming & W.Kaplan
Snowshil Manor
C1920s?
FOUNDER/ LEADER : Charles Wade
Arts & Crafts 'Utopia' set up by Raymond Unwin's assistant.
GRID REF: Location Unknown
REF: Hampstead Garden Suburb
National Homecroft
Ass. 1926-37
FOUNDER/LEADER: Prof. J.W.Scott
Public utility company inspired by working-class housing schemes in
California. Built ten houses at Cheltenam with smallholdings attached.
The families kept poultry & pigs and grew potatoes and fruit. It
was hoped to replace individual holding with group homecrofts. As the
depression worsened the scheme was used to teach groups of unemployed
to grow food. A market was set up where the members could buy and sell
their produce using their own local currency. The scheme had close links
with Cardiff university from where student came to help. By 1934 The
Times reported, in a favourable article, that light handlooms were in
use.
GRID REF: Cheltenam
REF:Self-subsistence for the Unemployed. Prof. J.W.Scott / Utopian England
Prinknash Abbey
1928 -
The 20th Earl of Rothes gave Prinknash house and 28 acres
to the Benedictine Monks from Caldey Island. The monks converted the
building and acquired more land creating a self-contained community
that was given abbey status in 1937. Further communities were founded
in 1947 at Farnborough & Pluscarden(Scotland).
GRID REF: SO869141
REF: Utopian England
Newent 1935
- 82?
Land Settlement Association smallholding scheme. (See
Chawston Beds.)
GRID REF: SO723258
REF : Colin Ward D&D 94/95
Gloucester Land
Scheme 1939-45
Land loaned by local Quaker for a pacifist land scheme.
Half a dozen or so COs lived in an old sports pavilion whilst growing
vegetables and dreaming of self-sufficiency.
GRID REF: SO811169 Nr Hempsted
REF: Andrew Rigby/D&D
Richmond Community
C1940
Wartime pacifist land settlement community.
GRID REF: Nr Ross-on-Wye
REF : Utopian England
Bromsash
C1941
Small community that took some Bruderhof members when
others went to Paraguay.
GRID REF: SO650241 Ross on Wye
REF: Heavens Below / Bruderhof
Museum
Taena Farm
1942-51
FOUNDER/ LEADER :George Ineson
Small pacifist based community on 55 acre wooded farm on sloping rocky
site. Intially highly organised with consensus decision making, communal
meals and plans for home education. Later became more informal. When
the lease ran out they moved to Whitley Court, nr Prinknash Abbey.
GRID REF: Forest of Dean
REF: Utopian England