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A few miles south from Cardigan, in the most south western point of Wales the black of evening seems intense and penetrating, a shock after the light of the city. There is not even star-light to guide us; a light rain covers the field with mist and it is hard to make out the thickets of darkening larch and temporary settlements of caravans and tents that some of the other families - there will be 9 in total - have put in the muddy fields ahead of starting their own building work next spring.
This is Lammas, a low-impact development that is the first of its kind in the UK to get planning permission before building. It took three attempts, and huge amounts of research and report-writing, for Simon and Jasmine and their two kids, and eight other families, to persuade the local council that they would contribute to the area, and would be able to make most of their living sustainably from the land whilst still creating a tiny ecological footprint.
A local smallholder, Dean Braithwaite, reminisces about his experiences farming 20 years ago - when he says a plot of 20 acres was more the norm for farmland. "In my early years in Pembrokeshire, I witnessed and, to a small extent was part of, the dying remnants of a mutuality and common goodwill that was once the norm." For him, Lammas represents a return to these old values. And this is what Simon is championing - although he puts it more simply when I asked what drew him here. "I thought 'what makes my heart sing?' and the answer came in being outdoors, and being with friends." he says.
The project is framed in the concept of 'one planet living', the idea that we need to limit our consumption to our share of the Earth's resources. Each household at Lammas needs to submit plans to show how they will live in this way, and how they will make a living. Simon does not believe that a shift to this way of living can come about any other way, than through communities, and people taking action for themselves. If you leave it to Governments, they will centralise power; if you leave it to business, they will focus on making profits - those may be crude distinctions, but their missions are embedded in their structures.
Huge amounts of local opposition - partly provoked by planning laws which restrict local people from building on their own land - but in large part stimulated by a fear of difference - were overcome through Simon's and others efforts. They thought that the fact that the Welsh assembly has put a duty on sustainable development would save them. Ultimately, it was a clause in the Pembrokershire Planning Legislation.
Huge amounts of local opposition - partly provoked by planning laws which restrict local people from building on their own land - but in large part stimulated by a fear of difference - were overcome through Simon's and others efforts. They thought that the fact that the Welsh assembly has put a duty on sustainable development would save them. Ultimately, it was a clause in the Pembrokershire Planning Legislation.
Paul Wimbush - one of the co-founders - writes on the Lammas site:
The Lammas project benefits from a new planning policy initiative in Pembrokeshire called ‘Policy 52, low-impact development’, under which new eco-smallholdings are permitted in the open countryside if they are able to demonstrate a sincere commitment to sustainability. There are now 12 households in Pembrokeshire benefiting from the policy, the most recent being a small woodland enterprise, Coedwig Blaen Llwydiarth in Maenclochog, in which Jenny Carr and Tony Cutajar were granted temporary permission for a dwelling by a Welsh Assembly Planning Inspector two weeks ago [in March 2010].
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Eiris is from California, a charismatic black guy who practises body-work, he cuts a striking figure in these grey muddy fields. He and his wife were inspired by an article that Jasmine wrote where she talked about living through the sometimes painful process of building her own house. "I've never been so aware of the weather as I am here - how it changes, how powerful it is."
"In Welsh there are at least 40 different words for rain", remind us Sue Clifford and Angela King, in their beautiful essay on Local Distinctiveness, Losing Your Place.
Meanwhile, Simon is laying stones, letting one take to another, selecting bigger flatter faces for the exposed base layer, finding a wave pattern in the curve as they sit together. His patient steady progress belies his skill and determination in completing the project: this house of earth and lime and turf and wood will have been built in 6 weeks with the help of volunteer labour.
No less incredible is the fact that Simon's resourcefulness - his ability to use and transform materials at hand, pieces of scrap and salvage from builders' auctions, has meant that this beautiful roundhouse will have cost him £2,500 to construct in materials. We saw him rig up a simple kitchen, complete with shelves, sink, drain, and cooker fuelled with gas cylinders, in a matter of hours. And with the leasehold for the plot of land costing £40,000, this is much chaeaper than any conventional alternative.
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"To have people there, in your space - it's not the normal way of working", says Stephanie Renshaw a community mural painter from Leeds who is one of the other volunteers on the project. "I was really happy for those 10 days at Lammas because I was outdoors and free to work the hours I worked. And I worked harder as a result".
At Lammas, Steph says : "What most impressed me was Simon's attitude - we just give it a go - his attitude to building is flexible and creative. He doesn't have detailed plans and is happy to have input from completely inexperienced people. He even asked me if the stone below the window should be exposed or not. It gives you the feeling of possibility; his open-ness, his inclusiveness. When you ring him up - with just the number from his mailing list and ask to come and help he simply says "yes, when will you be there?".
Life in this community seems more direct than life back home: we know where things come from and we can trace where they go to. And we can see the effect of our effort - we are at once more relaxed and more productive.
As Ivan Illich argues in 'Deschooling Society' - so much of industrial society is so counterproductive. Rather than economies of scale, there are hidden costs. So - when they reach a critical point (and form a monopoly), big institutions of modern industrial societies, become, without knowing it, impediments to their own performance.
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Back home in Leeds, Steph - who became a friend as we built and cooked together and shared jokes as the wind and rain constantly battered the tarpaulin around the straw bales where we slept and worked in those cold muddy days - is not finding home comforts are making her happier.
We both found that there was something about living in the natural patterns of the day, working when it is light, feeling aware of - and part of the world around you - that is good for the soul. When there is electricity, you can work all the hours of winter, and resist the body's voice when it tells you to hibernate and rest.
"When you live in an alternative way it highlights the problems with the standard way of life." says Steph. "Everything you do creates an impact: you walk into a room, and turn on the lights. Every aspect of a conventional life, the choices you make, creates some damage. And if you have a mind like mine, the gap between you believe and what you can do makes you stressed."
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