Diggers and Dreamers

Eden Ballantyne was attracted by a poster inviting new members to become part of a proposed low impact affordable community. Something that ultimately became Leeds-based LILAC – Low Impact Living Affordable Community. He tells us how he joined about a year before building started. There's lots about the building process; LILAC's complex, but well established mutual home ownership system; how they run things on a day-to-day basis; as well as the balance of privacy and communality in cohousing.

LILAC at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/lilac

LILAC https://www.lilac.coop/

A sample summary of Mutual Home Ownership https://www.wrigleys.co.uk/charities-and-social-economy/community-led-housing/mutual-home-ownership-societies-MHOS

Mikaela had lots of experience of co-ops in California before moving to the UK and getting involved in Stirchley Co-operative Development – a group of local people who are building an affordable and eco-friendly residential and community premises in the heart of Stirchley, Birmingham They are developing land on Pershore Road to house three local community premises along with a block of 39 apartments which will ultimately be known as Jessie Eden House.

Jessie Eden House at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/jessie-eden-house

Gung Ho Housing Co-op at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/gung-ho-housing-co-op

Stirchley Co-operative Development https://stirchley.coop

Green Square Accord https://greensquareaccord.co.uk

Nat describes her own path to communal living (she wishes that she'd done it years ago) as well as filling us in on the early days of Crabapple in Shropshire. The community at Berrington Hall celebrated its fiftieth birthday in 2025 so there's plenty to hear about the evolution of the place over the last five decades. It may no longer adhere to the ideas of B F Skinner as described in his novel Walden Two but it's still very much thriving.

Crabapple at Diggers and Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/crabapple-community

Crabapple on Facebook https://www.facebook.com/crabapplecommunity/

Walden Two https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Walden_Two

Hockerton Housing Project in Nottinghamshire, UK is a community of five sustainable homes, with a co-operative business on-site running a range of educational and advisory services in sustainable buildings and lifestyles. Simon Tilley was one of the founder members and he tells us how the community works as well as supplying a lot of technical information!

Hockerton Housing Project at Diggers and Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/hockerton-housing-project

Hockerton Housing Project https://www.hockertonhousingproject.org.uk

GreenPWR https://www.greenpwr.com

Sustainable Hockerton https://sustainablehockerton.org

Energy Local Clubs https://energylocal.org.uk

Edinburgh Student Housing Co-operative is one of a whole new wave of co-ops that are now popping up all over the UK. Numbers of members can be huge and the population more transient than mainstream housing co-ops. But for many students they can be inspirational spaces that make them want something more from housing in their adult lives.

Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op at Diggers & Dreamers https://diggersanddreamers.org.uk/community/edinburgh-student-housing-co-op

Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op https://www.eshc.coop

Edinburgh Student Housing Co-op at Instagram https://www.instagram.com/eshcoop/

Student Co-op Homes https://www.studenthomes.coop

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