Fundraisers busy with events in a bid to safeguard Shropshire organic farm

The campaign to raise £1.5m to save Babbinswood Farm, near Oswestry, by putting part of the land into community ownership has already raised almost £24,000 and attracted support from across the UK.

Members of the Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society - a type of co-operative - are offering the public community shares as one way of raising the money needed to purchase 117 acres of land, buildings and woodland at the farm.

Daisy Kirtley, one of the directors of the new co-op, said this was an approach that both saved the existing farm by preventing sale to the open market and further grew the community services offered on the land through the stewardship of the CBS.

The community benefit society aims to put part of the farm in community ownership and lease the pasture and some of the buildings back to the farming family, Barbara Jones and her daughter Casha Bowles-Jones whose family have farmed at Babbinswood for five generations.

Daisy explained that the aim was to maintain 20 years of certified organic stewardship, a ground-breaking cow and calf dairy herd and the whole host of community facilities and events provided by the farm while also providing the community owned CBS with a rent to further expand land access and facilities.

“It’s a win-win,” she said. “Not many people have heard of community shares as a way to save land, but the approach is so beneficial for communities. Shareholders get a life-long voice in the land’s management – it’s not a donation drive.”

The scheme is almost identical to that at Fordhall Farm, Market Drayton, which became England’s first community owned farm after a similar campaign in 2006. Charlotte Hollins, who led that campaign, is now a key advisor and a director of Babbinswood Farm CBS.

Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society is also organising direct fund raising events and applying for grants as part of the fund raising.

This Saturday members will be supporting the Love Oswestry Festival with a stall on the Bailey Head in Oswestry where they will be able to answer questions from the public, provide extra information and offer community shares.

Casha Bowles-Jones, future tenant farmer, said it was a chance for members of the community benefit society to answer questions on the scheme.

“We also want to meet some of the public who have supported us to say a big thank you for the fantastic response we have had to the appeal. It’s been really heart-warming to hear their stories and pledges of support,” said Casha.

Babbinswood Farm is also hosting a talk by author and campaigner Alice Robinson about her book Field, Fork, Fashion. She will also discuss her work as co-founder of British Pasture Leather, a pioneering initiative that produces leather from pasture-raised cattle, certified by Pasture for Life.

Tickets for Alice’s talk, which starts at 2pm, cost £6.50 and are available via Eventbright. All proceeds will be donated to the Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society.

In addition, the farm is hosting a series of free family nature-based activities in both the English and Welsh Spring half terms. Activities will take place on Thursday, Friday and Saturday from 11am to 2pm this week and also on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the following week.

Further information on the fund raising and community shares is available on the website babbinswoodfarmcbs.org.uk or by emailing future@babbinswoodfarmcbs.org.uk.