Shropshire organic farm at centre of bid for community ownership opens its gates to the public

Farms all over the country will open their gates to the public as part of the Open Farm Sunday initiative and Babbinswood Farm will be one of them.

Casha Bowles-Jones, the current farmer whose family have farmed the land at Babbinswood Farm for five generations, said everyone was welcome to the free, dog and child-friendly open day at the farm in Berghill Lane, Babbinswood, near Oswestry.

“Come along for an afternoon of fresh air, hands-on educational activities, and a proper taste of life on a working organic farm here in the heart of Shropshire,” said Casha.

The open day, which starts at 12 noon, will give visitors the chance to find out about Babbinswood’s unusual dairy, where calves are kept with their mothers until naturally weaned and milk shared between dairy and calves.

The traditional cow and calf dairy herd was recently featured on television as part of coverage of the farm’s bid for community ownership.

The farm is aiming to make the community its landlord through the sale of half their land to Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society, a non-profit co-operative, safeguarding the organic land and the cow and calf dairy while growing the community initiatives there.

Between £800,000 and £1.5m is needed by the end of September to put up to 117 acres of the farm into community ownership. Supporters are raising the funds through community shares, donations and grants

Fund raisers have already raised almost £100,000 in their campaign to save part of the farm from being sold on the open market because of a change in family circumstances.

Members of Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society will be on hand at the open day to talk about the community ownership scheme and its plans for the future.

Daisy Kirtley, one of the directors of the CBS, said buying a community share in the farm for just £50 would give local people a lifelong voice in how the land was used.

“I see this as a way of giving normal people greater access to land and influence in how we use it. You can’t buy influence in a charitable co-operative. Each shareholder gets one vote and can put themselves up for election to direct.

“Land value is nowadays inflated by the ‘hope value’ of development, and this puts it out of reach of normal people. I see this as a practical way to pool our resources to put land back in reach, to secure another asset for the community.”

She said that the CBS was a non-profit organisation which would use rent from a farming tenancy to fund community projects on the land

“Every share helps keep this land organic, biodiverse, and protected from absentee landlords or commercial development. And it helps retain and build on the farm’s existing community involvement. It’s a very practical, innovative form of land ownership,” she said.

The farm is also screening the film Six Inches of Soil on Saturday, May 31 from 12noon followed by a farm walk to raise funds for the campaign. The film tells the story of young British farmers who are challenging industrial food systems and transforming food production.

The following day, June 1, Babbinswood Farm will also play host to Queer Ecology with Tom Moulsdale for a farm walk questioning preconceived ideas about the natural world. The event takes place from 10am.

Further information on the fund raising and community shares is available on the website www.babbinswoodfarmcbs.org.uk or by emailing future@babbinswoodfarmcbs.org.uk. A Crowdfunder page is at Save Babbinswood Farm - a Community crowdfunding project in Oswestry by Babbinswood Farm Community Benefit Society

Further information on the open day and other nature activities is on the Babbinswood Farm website.