Looking back ten years to the month when Lower Shaw Farm in West Swindon was threatened with closure

The November 2006 Link magazine reported that the Swindon Borough Council member responsible for finance had proposed terminating the lease agreement with Lower Shaw Farm in Old Shaw Lane, West Swindon in order to ‘develop’ the 3-acre site for executive housing.

The farm’s directors, workers, and users were, to put it mildly, not happy. There was immediate public outcry, and a flood of angry emails and phone calls to councillors across the town.

Lower Shaw Farm was first leased from the council in 1975 by the Foundation for Alternatives in Urban Development, for educational, cultural and community purposes, with a particular focus on being environmentally-friendly.

In 1980 the foundation handed over responsibility to a local group led by Matt Holland, who grew up in Purton, and Andrea Hirsch from London, who had previously volunteered at the farm.

For more than 30 years Matt, Andrea, and others ran the farm on a succession of short leases which made for an uncertain existence. Matt said: “In any kind of relationship, whether personal or business, you need stability and security to allow imagination to flow and ambitions to grow, for plans, investment, and commitment to be made. To this end, we were looking for long-term security at Lower Shaw Farm.”

He added: “Ten years ago, the farm’s future looked in doubt. We understood the problems facing a cash-strapped council. Both we and they recognised the need to look closely at things, to consider the pros and cons, to consult and negotiate in civilised fashion, and to make sure that we did not confuse the notional development price of the farm with its real value and its role as a community asset. It was a question of long-term use and value, or short-term profit and development.

“While these negotiations carried on, trying to continue to run the farm successfully but with a cloud of uncertainty hanging over us, was a decidedly tricky business, at times positively tortuous.

“For five years we soldiered on. And then, finally, once the site had been more fully assessed as to its suitability for development, it transpired that its actual development value was far less than the Council had at first thought, especially after English Heritage indicated that no new houses could be built close to the Grade II Listed farmhouse.”

“From that point on, good sense prevailed. We would like to thank the then council leader Rod Bluh for having an open mind about the farm. Considering the political pressure he would have been under, we respect his foresight and wisdom for seeing long term possibilities for the farm. And he did so by taking action.

2016: Mary Wilcox enjoying the experience of sitting in a vintage Nuffield tractor at Lower Shaw Farm

"After years of consultation and reports, one autumn day, Rod made the time to visit the farm with the then council chief executive Gavin Jones. After a good look round and lengthy discussion, we reached the bottom garden. Standing under the old apple tree, I recall Rod saying: ‘You know, I’m beginning to see things in a new light’; to which Gavin added: ‘Yes, there is something magical about this place.’ That was a turning point."

But it was in November 2011 that a solution was finally found, agreement was reached, and the farm’s trustees and the council signed a 25 year lease.

Rod expressed surprise that Swindon Link wanted him to reflect on events from ten years ago. He explained: “It all kicked off when a group of people in the council believed the farm was being subsidised and receiving preferential treatment. To a degree I saw their point but didn’t want to see Lower Shaw Farm closed because it is part of a much bigger picture in the town.

"I also thought it was not politically clever to create a fight about a facility that was so obviously well supported by the community - in Swindon and all over the country and abroad, judging by the emails I received.

"We did suggest that Lower Shaw Farm relocate to one of the council owned farmhouses in the more rural parts of the borough but Matt and Andrea were against closing down what had been created over the last 30 years and having to rebuild it all over again.

"I'm really pleased by the way things have turned out, even though it took a long time to work through all the decision making of agreeing a lease. My firmly held view was that Lower Shaw Farm is not about the money; it represents a value to our town which has to be quantified in different ways. For example, Matt, the farm and the Swindon Festival of Literature are closely interlinked. The festival brings recognition to Swindon which cannot be underestimated.

"I accept Lower Shaw Farm is not for everybody but we all need different things in life; I'm glad I've been part of keeping alive something which is unique to Swindon."

Since 2011, with the future of the farm secure, Matt and Andrea and an army of helpers and co-workers have invested time, effort, and money into improving outbuildings, general facilities, and increasing the wide range of courses on offer to people from Swindon and further afield.

The are also meetings and conferences, a weekly community fitness walk and a Wednesday community coffee morning, and the farm is the based for a children’s project and the Swindon Festival of Literature.

Notwithstanding its urban location, Lower Shaw Farm retains a rural charm with a vintage red tractor in the yard, ducks and hens free-ranging, sheep grazing in the paddock, and pigs rooting about in the orchard.

But appearances deceive said Matt. “Despite the farm’s outwardly ramshackle appearance, it is run with an inner military order. We are direct service providers, we aim to serve people well, particularly serving Swindon well. And the fact that our courses are so popular suggest that we may be getting things right.”

One mum, delighted that Lower Shaw Farm was saved from the bulldozers, is Anita Sharp from Toothill, who had just started visiting the farm with her baby ten years ago. She said: “Izzie was the first of my three children to enjoy the homely, welcoming and communal atmosphere of the farm. Having just found it, I was really horrified to discover that the council wanted to knock it down.

“Now, we’re still coming to the community cafe when there are teacher training days. The kids love swinging on the rope in the barn and climbing into the parachute net. I’d like to think that Lower Shaw Farm will continue for future generations and one day I will be able to bring my own grandchildren here.”

Discover more at: www.lowershawfarm.co.uk

From the archive: How we reported the campaign to save Lower Shaw in 2006 and 2007

The Swindonlink view (November 2006): Swindon Council could blunder into a blinkered decision

There are occasions when proposals are just so wrong that they need blunt comment and what councillors decide now will have profound affect on the quality of life in the town.

April 2007 is the tenth anniversary of Swindon Council becoming a unitary authority. It’s been a bumpy decade with Government assessors ranking Swindon as one of Britain’s poorest managed authorities.

Over the last three years the present Conservative administration, with much prodding from central Government, has been making headway to get the governance of the town right, to attract economic investment and to provide better educational, health and community facilities.

And over the next 20 years Swindon is expected to grow by a further 35,000 homes and the population will rise to 250,000. No doubt Swindon Council will start thinking it’s time to bid for city status again.

Yet, if this council were to destroy what has been established at Lower Shaw Farm since 1980, what does it say about Swindon’s aspirations? Does it deserve to be considered as a modern, forward thinking authority committed to improving the quality of life in our town?

A town is built on solid and physical structures and also achievements. Just as important are the key features that make it different, unusual, attractive and appealing, those intangible and by their nature ill defined things that give a place a wow factor.

Lower Shaw Farm is one of the few places in Swindon which falls into this category. It’s a place where people rediscover key basic values: the joys of being and doing things together, in a setting that is truly people friendly, nature friendly and community friendly.

Swindon Council is keen on rebuilding the town centre with fine architecture and attractions to draw people to it. But this bright shiny future is so superficial if Lower Shaw Farm is swept away because it does not measure up on an arguable value for money scale.

Families and schools go there because children gain experiences unavailable elsewhere. Adults are able to achieve a few moments respite from a world dominated by consumerism, media domination and strife.

Swindon councillors could soon destroy something unique and bring national attention of the wrong kind to the town.

 27 September 2006: Family favourite under threat

Lower Shaw Farm  could be sold for housing. Children could be denied unique chance to learn at unique urban education centre. Much loved community farm and home of the famous Swindon Festival of Literature could be sold

Lower Shaw Farm could be closed down if Swindon Council’s Property Department plan to sell the land for housing goes ahead. The reason: the amount of money required to build three new primary schools has been mis-calculated and the council is now casting around for assets to flog to meet its commitments.

The idea will be greeted with utter dismay by thousands of people from Swindon and across Britain who have been to Lower Shaw Farm since it was first set up with the council’s blessing 30 years ago as an alternative conference centre and community resource.

Councillor Nick Martin, Swindon cabinet lead member for finance, confirmed the farm is being considered for sale. “The cost of providing new schools has been mounting up; about a year ago we decided to look at disposing other assets to meet our commitments.

“We can generate about £2 million from redevelopment of the farmhouse and the land. We could also sort out traffic congestion on Cartwright Drive next to Brook Field school.

“The activities at the farm were appropriate whilst West Swindon was growing but we don’t really need it any longer; it’s time for a change.

“The cabinet has responsibility for seeing the best return from assets and we have to make difficult decisions.”

The farm is leased to a trust and has become a thriving education centre and meeting place for people of all ages and backgrounds. This includes structured residential courses and recreational activities in arts and crafts, gardening and the environment, writing and reading, music and juggling, cooking and animal care.

Lots of schools and pre-schools visit and the farm is used for corporate team building sessions, teacher training and meetings by a wide variety of groups from across the town and further afield.

The farm is home to a Children’s Project where children play safely but in an adventurous setting, and take part in environmental games, rural and seasonal crafts and story walks to see the animals. In 2001 it was the winner of the first Swindon Council Agenda 21 Quality of Life award for its contribution to Swindon as a sustainable community.

One of its tenants, Matt Holland, who has lived and worked at the farm with his wife Andrea since 1980, is founder and organiser of the Swindon Festival of Literature, which has been run from the farm for the last 14 years. It was started there and is a project of the Lower Shaw Farm Association.

Many festival events are held at the farm and many eminent authors have been there. The festival is now considered one of the leading events in the town’s cultural calendar and derives much of its spirit, energy and ideas from the farm’s unique atmosphere.

Matt expressed great disappointment that the council’s Property Department has taken such a seemingly short-sighted, unimaginative, and solely money-orientated view of the farm’s value. He said, “it looks to me as though this has been treated simply as a financial and rental matter by the Property Department. Their valuers appear to have ignored both the council’s original visionary resolution, made in the early 1980s, to retain the farm in perpetuity, and its present popularity.

“It strikes me that this matter requires further consultation and a closer look by professionals who have ideals, imagination, and the town’s broader interests at heart. Also, the people of Swindon might like to have their say.”

Parent Wendy Wyatt, from Shaw, was horrified to hear the news. “Where else in a large town could you bring your children to feed chickens, collect eggs and see things growing? Both my children have a clearer understanding of the environment.

“Lower Shaw Farm is a precious resource - once lost, it’s gone. It’s a one off which has taken years to establish. It is sad to think of all the children who might not have the chance to visit the farm.”

Andrea, Matt, and their team of supporters and helpers are committed to their role as guardians and custodians of a place that started as an experiment and became a success, a feather in Swindon’s cap.

September 2007: What is going on at Lower Shaw Farm?

At the beginning of October 2006 SwindonLink became aware that Swindon Council was cooking up a plan to expel the residents of Lower Shaw Farm so that the site could be sold off for executive housing.

We were the first to break the story on www.swindonlink.com and in The Link magazine at the end of October 2006 and predicted that the proposal would be greeted by dismay and a very angry response.

And so it came to pass. The reaction from readers, people across Swindon and further afield, as well as other local media outlets, was an overwhelming ‘hands off Lower Shaw Farm.’

A tsunami of e-mails, letters and ‘phone calls crashed into the office of Swindon Council leader Rod Bluh from people appalled that the farm was being considered for closure. Indeed Matt Holland and Andrea Hirsch, who have run the farm as an educational centre with residential facilities for over 25 years, had been given a few months notice to quit.

Opponents to the plan were completely amazed by the high-handed, short-sighted, unimaginative, profit led policy, contrary to a council resolution in the early 1980s to retain the farm as an ecological haven in the midst of expansion to the west of the town.

Just as even more persuasive environmental and quality of life issues were hitting the headlines - as well as the Conservative Party turning a greener shade of blue -  Swindon Council seemed intent on throwing away an invaluable but unsung feature of the Swindon community in order to carry out a ‘re-sophistication’ of a capital asset.

Many people used the same expression: ‘they know the price of everything, but the value of nothing.’

Behind the scenes meetings between Lower Shaw Farm trustees and the council leader were complemented by a courteous campaign to save the farm. On 25 November, the full council agreed a resolution affirming its support for the activities at the farm and that the council would seek a way forward to secure its future  by renewing a long term lease of the education centre and look at jointly developing the site with high quality sustainable homes.

There has been silence since whilst the council started to draw up a planning brief for the site. The Link understands that at a meeting in May a variety of agencies indicated objections to site development, though they could be over-ruled within Swindon Council.

After another period of silence a meeting with Coun Bluh and council officers is to take place in early October to discuss a consultant’s report on what is to be done with Lower Shaw Farm.

Now, the council is besotted with green issues after Making Rooms TV star Kevin McCloud selected Swindon in July to be the site of a ground breaking project to build up to 400 high quality eco-homes.

Coun Bluh said, “nobody is more frustrated by the delay than me. I am meeting the Lower Shaw Farm trustees with the Chief Executive in early October; we’re very keen to honour the spirit of the agreement made last November.”

www.lowershawfarm.co.uk