Claudia Lucrecia Marcos Sanchez Manrique and Ian Hare have gone from being key members of the UK Communities Conference organising team to carrying out a stupendous tour of intentional communities in both North and South America. Hear about some of their experiences and the contribution that these have made to starting a new project in Peru (https://elpiloteperu.substack.com/p/welcome-to-el-pilote).

Braziers Park at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/braziers-community

Twin Oaks https://www.twinoaks.org

Cambia Community https://cambiacommunity.weebly.com

Kalli Killa https://facebook.com/KalliKilla

Huehuecoyotl https://huehuecoyotl.net

Fundacion Darien https://fundaciondarien.org

Chambalabamba www.ecoaldeachambalabamba.org

El Juego https://eljuego.community

Chaikuni https://chaikuni.org/work/permaculture

Owen Jarvis is the Chief Executive of the UK Cohousing Network – an organisation which raises awareness of cohousing; supports developing groups; and lobbies government and other bodies. Owen describes his own journey from an urban community in his student days to five years at Findhorn and now... prumoting cohousing – a very particular type of intentional community.

UK Cohousing Network https://cohousing.org.uk

UKCN Members at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/communities/uk-cohousing-network-members

LILAC https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/lilac

Chapeltown Cohousing https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/chapeltown-cohousing

Paul Sedgwick was three years old when he joined his first community... FAmilies BY Choice (known as FABYC) in south west London! He describes his own experiences and the evolution of that community over the decades that have followed. Now – at retirement age – he and his wife are members of Still Green, a project which is planning a senior cohousing community in Wolverton – one of the old towns within the new city of Milton Keynes.

Still Green at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/still-green

Still Green https://stillgreencohousing.org

Lakshmi Piette Walker began her communal "career" at Lyn's House Community in Cambridge. But she didn't stop there. Now she's exploring the concept of Christian community at a global level and through her blog and podcasts is bringing those ideas to a much wider audience.

Lakshmi's Substack https://lakshmipiette.substack.com/s/dwelling-place

UK Intentional Christian Community Directory https://field-bird-0fd.notion.site/a992da4fb5e64cdc86dbce31e87fa460?v=92f282a5a21449b09c403720e721d059

Lyn's House https://lynshouse.org

Monica King and Lin Scrannage describe the long journey that has finally led to the successful creation of Bridport Cohousing Community in Dorset. Despite all the legal and financial obstacles that they faced they never gave up. Their living units are now all occupied and their community house is very close to completion. It's an inspiring tale.

Bridport Cohousing at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/bridport-cohousing

Bridport Cohousing https://bridportcohousing.org.uk

School of Natural Building https://schoolofnaturalbuilding.co.uk

Hooke Park https://hookepark.aaschool.ac.uk

Kirsten chats with Mary Davies and James Newman who are both long term members of Pilsdon Community. They're joined by Helen Lynch who has just become the new Warden. They talk about the original inspiration for the community and its founding members back in 1958. Nearly seven decades later the place is still going strong as a radically inclusive community which offers struggling people an opportunity to find a way through their problems.

Pilsdon Community at Diggers & Dreamers: https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/pilsdon-community

Pilsdon Community: https://www.pilsdon.org.uk/

Nicholas Ferrar https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicholas_Ferrar

Little Gidding Community https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Gidding_community

Pilsdon Morning Gaynor Smith 1982, ISBN 13: 9780863030598

Spaceheads: https://spaceheads.co.uk/recordings/a-new-world-in-our-hearts/

Matt describes how he was born into a Bruderhof Community in England which then moved to... South America! Back in the UK as a young adult in the 1970s he chanced upon Lower Shaw - an old farmhouse with a bit of land that was fast being surrounded by the expansion of Swindon. His story then takes us through the various stages that Lower Shaw Farm has gone through in the intervening decades.

Lower Shaw Farm https://www.lowershawfarm.co.uk/about-the-farm

Bruderhof Communities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruderhof_Communities

Spaceheads: https://spaceheads.co.uk/recordings/a-new-world-in-our-hearts

Barbara Sanders and Chris Coates continue the story of Burnley-based People in Common. This episode covers the move from terraced houses to Altham Cornmill and the many creative ways in which this move was facilitated. A big thank you goes out to the dozens of volunteers who contributed their labour... and especially an informal organisation of the time that was called "Rapid Transformations". All RT needed was a bottle of whisky and a site for their sauna!

People in Common https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/people-in-common

A Life in Common https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/shop/a-life-in-common

Spaceheads: https://spaceheads.co.uk/recordings/a-new-world-in-our-hearts/

As another 1970s commune heads for its fiftieth anniversary we interview Barbara Sanders - one of the founders - and Chris Coates who joined later but lived at People in Common for a couple of decades. In a surprising turn of events some cheap and cheerful terraced houses in Burnley became the test location for pioneering co-operative model rules that remain important to this day.

People in Common https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/people-in-common

A Life in Common https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/shop/a-life-in-common

Spaceheads: https://spaceheads.co.uk/recordings/a-new-world-in-our-hearts/

Mary joined the Findhorn Community back in 1973 so she has a really good overview of all that's happened there in the intervening decades. It seems that recent events may be making the place far more "intentional" than it once was.

Findhorn https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/findhorn

New Findhorn Association https://www.findhorn.cc

Findhorn Foundation Trust (SCIO) https://www.findhorn.org/findhorn-foundation-trust