Lower Shaw Farm - Reader Letters 1
Reactions sent to SwindonLink.com
October - November 2006

Council puts money before quality of life
Letter from Ros Kane

I have been visiting Lower Shaw Farm for many years for magical and instructive weekends. I was horrified to learn that the Swindon Borough Council Property Department is planning to sell it off to build new housing.

I understand that the Council resolved in the early 1980s to 'retain the farm in perpetuity.' Why is it now abandoning this pledge in the cause of money?

The Council does not seem to realise that it has a real 'jewel in its crown.' Or if it does, it has decided to put money before quality of life. Lower Shaw Farm provides so many local benefits, as well as a place for non-Swindon people to go to recharge their batteries. It is unique. It would be a tragedy to close it. It would reflect very badly on the imaginative powers of the Council.

With many other supporters, I urge the Council to reverse its plans and allow this wonderful place to continue 'in perpetuity'.

We all have to act to stop it's closure
Letter from Hilary Davies, from Kent

I believe it would be a disaster for Swindon if Lower Shaw Farm was closed.

Having visited from Kent with my family over a period of fifteen years, I realise it is a unique place where creativity and a real sense of community flourish, led so uniquely by Matt, Andrea, their family and helpers.

As for not needing it "any longer" ( according to Cllr Nick Martin), I believe the community needs it's continued contribution even more as a place for children and adults to reconnect with real values, to learn about where food comes from, to share ideas, as a living and productive green space and as a place to relax and be creative.

It is the heart of a community that can risk becoming faceless and detached among the extended urban sprawl and it is a centre that constantly draws people back locally and, like us, from hundreds of miles away. We all have to act to stop it's closure.

Swindon Council should value this wonderful Service
Letter from Ruth Parson, Inglesham, Swindon

It is with great sadness I hear that Swindon Council's Property Department are hoping to sell off Lower Shaw Farm for housing.

Lower Shaw Farm has consistently added richness and diversity to people's lives through training and events. It has helped the local community to develop and helped countless individuals to learn new skills, feel satisfied with life and make friends. It has a special role for the children who visit, giving them a taste of nature and adventure in a safe environment.

I would have thought that Swindon Council should value this wonderful Service to local people. A Service it does not cost the Council anything to provide. It should be doing all it can to support Lower Shaw Farm and to help other similar ventures to thrive.

What does the Council need the money for? Has it not made enough from all the other housing developments taking place around the town? I'm not sure if the Council is even allowed to access the money it would make from selling the land.

Do we really want a Swindon where everything is materialistic and the Council only provides statutory services? I am sure I am not the only person who thinks not. Let us not move in that direction. We need to value Lower Shaw Farm where a great service is provided to keep Swindon a special place to live.

A unique and invaluable cultural experience for children, families, teachers and adults alike
Letter from James Carter

I am a children's poet and I perform in arts centres / libraries / schools / book festivals all over the UK. There is nowhere like LSF anywhere in the country. It offers a unique and invaluable cultural experience for children, families, teachers and adults alike. For Swindon Council to get rid of this creative haven is criminal.

A total and undeniable disgrace
Letter from Anne Dagless

The Council's proposal to sell Lower Shaw Farm is a total and undeniable disgrace.

How dare Swindon Council continuously put my Council Tax up at an alarming rate to cover the Council's constant overspending and then decide that the very things to do with the community that this tax is meant to cover are being sold off because the Council cannot add up. Not helped by the large pay rises the higher management gave themselves last year.

I fail to see in my area, (Park North), anything that this tax actually covers, and don't even dare to mention the Cavendish Square fiasco where there are new houses & flats being built for sale right next to a shopping area that I am too scared to shop at in broad daylight. Even more money wasted. The old Police Station (now flats) is still empty, Swindon Council is making money, hand over fist, selling land over here and none of it is being put back into this community.

As for the traffic calming joke, it's not policed and is totally ignored, so this does not count either.

I have seen the play park behind Welcombe Avenue Stores removed, so the kids have nothing to do all day and then the Council wonders why juvenile crime is on the rise here, duh!!! that is what places like Lower Shaw farm are for or are the Council really as braindead is it appears?

We never see the so called Community Wardens in our streets, even the local police are too scared to travel round the Parks unless it is in pairs, in a car. So please, explain to my neighbours and myself exactly what we are paying for if not for the upkeep of community & family area's such as Lower Shaw Farm, the Link Centre, the Oasis and Milton Road?

I suspect that if past to the Council, this email will be ignored as are the two letters I wrote asking for an explaination of where my money was being used but then I am begining to be of the opinion that the reason they are ignored is because no one at the council can read words of more that four letters, maybe we need to start using the less appropriate four letter words to get any reaction at all.

We need more places like Lower Shaw Farm
Letter from Fay Howard, Westlea

We can't lose this. In an age when everything for kids is sterile and plastic we need more places like Lower Shaw Farm, not less.

I have happy memories of my children playing around with others in the barn and making creative things out of their natural finds. The buildings are unique and to be where it is is just right.

If this jewel goes it won't be replaced. There are too few opportunities for an experience such as this already, let's not lose another one.

LSF is an oasis of peace and tranquillity
Letter from Catherine Wescott

On reading a recent article on the closure of Lower Shaw Farm, I am stunned by the news and deeply saddened.

On coming to Swindon ten years ago, settling in was so very hard after leaving an amazing cultural centre such as London. I was desperate for just a tiny bit of London to be here in Swindon, but alas, Swindon seemed to close down at 5pm and I was at a loss as to where it was all happening. I wandered aimlessly around for months, wondering what on earth there was on offer that could compare to the vibrancy, culture and excitement of the London that I had left behind.

On thumbing through The Link magazine one day, I came across an article written by Matt Holland. I couldn't believe it, here was an article that was obviously written by someone with a burning passion for life and love. Someone who was bursting with enthusiasm for the arts, someone who was so obviously deeply interested in the life and soul of each and every human being. I phoned Lower Shaw Farm and half an hour later realised that I had finally found my Oasis in this new town of mine.

Matt and his beautiful partner Andrea, run LSF and as a taste of things to come, on my first 'unannounced? ' visit with my children, I was met by the wonderful sound of Puccini's Madame Butterfly blaring from an old radio in the chicken shed. I was later to be told by Matt that the chickens lay better if they hear classical music!.

Lower Shaw Farm is no ordinary arts and craft centre, no ordinary farm, no ordinary educational centre. Lower Shaw Farm is not JUST a building, LSF is an oasis of peace and tranquillity and above all, a place where love exudes from the family who live and work so very hard there. I have never met such a beautiful family whose joy and zest for life, it shines like a beacon in the heart of a town which appeared to be sleeping when I arrived here ten years ago. Matt and Andrea, always work in an atmosphere of pure and absolute unconditional love. This is no ordinary place. One would be taking away a precious jewel if LSF were not to exist.

A multitude of activities flourish at Lower Shaw Farm. Anything and everything happens at LSF. No-one cares if they get muddy or soaked at the annual outdoor Christmas Carol event. Who cares? Everyone is happy to be with the next person who, even if they don?t know him or her, know they will be equally loved and cherished. No-one ever feels left out, but totally loved. LSF is not all clean and state of the art, that?s the beauty of it. The children can get mucky and be real children. Matt and Andrea are always there to cherish you if you feel shy or lonely. Believe me, this is no ordinary place. LSF grabs you and satiates you with love, words, books, food, music, kindness, fun and games and above all a fabulous desire to live life to the full.

Money? Value for money. Who is talking money? How can you talk money with LSF. LSF is priceless. There is no price that can be paid for the years of work that have gone into making what LSF is today. If you take LSF away, I feel you would be ripping the heart out of Swindon.

Yes, of course the services can be provided elsewhere, but LSF is not just about services. There is no way that you would be able to replace the years of love and deep commitment that has gone into building LSF and everything it has become. LSF is no ordinary centre for people, LSF is a deeply spiritual place where love has been number one on the agenda before any art or craft. I believe people don?t go to LSF solely for the fabulous array of courses and child-friendly activities that go on there, but for the love and peace that IS Lower Shaw Farm rather than anything else.

To take away LSF would be like removing an oasis of love and life from Swindon. PLEASE DON?T TAKE IT FROM US. I know of nowhere else here where one can feel so loved and treasured, whilst being so totally immersed in an all- encompassing environment of arts and culture.

Coun. Martin, if this is Swindon's 'allotment,' then I long to be a part of it and all it stands for.

LSF Puts Swindon on the cultural map
Letter from Marina Lewycka, author of A Short History of Tractors in Ukrainie and visitor to the Swindon Festival of Literature, May 2006

I was appalled to learn that Swindon Borough Council is threatening to turn Lower Shaw Farm into a building site. As someone who has enjoyed the hospitality of this remarkable international cultural centre, I wonder whether you realise just what you are doing.

The unique atmosphere of Lower Shaw Farm cannot be replicated anywhere, and puts Swindon on the cultural map in a way which no amount of residential property can.

While I appreciate that when budgets are tight, savings need to be made, I think you would soon come to regret having thrown away this opportunity to showcase Swindon as a progressive and interesting place attracting artists and writers. I hope you will reconsider this short-sighted decision.

The sale of Lower Shaw Farm is wrong
Letter from Pat and Dave Oborn

The proposed sale of Lower Shaw Farm is wrong and should be resisted.

We live in Old Shaw Lane, but this is not a NIMBY protest. The Farm is worth much more than the addition of a few more houses.

There is inevitably a swirl of confusion when such a controversial development becomes public knowledge and in this case the disturbance is far from settled yet. It is commonly held that the sacrifice of the Farm is to pay for a shorfall in Education finances, caused by inappropriate developments elsewhere in the area. Councillors have decided that assets must be made to 'work' harder. We use Shaw Ridge daily, and that large area is very much under worked. There are a good few acres there available for realisation whilst still leaving substantial open space!

The Farm is most certainly an asset to this town, it's reputation greater outside the area than within. If councillors are unaware of this it reflects badly upon their knowledge of the area which they purport to represent.

When this hamlet was subsumed in the creation of a new urban area, the then Thamesdown Borough Council agreed to retain the Farm as a remnant of what had been lost. Was this just a crumb thrown to appease, only to be casually swept up later? Will similar 'assurances' be given with regard to the new Front Garden development? If so then those in receipt of them have been warned.

We are lucky that the Farm has been managed by such capable stewards. There have been similar houses that were less fortunate and deteriorated. Swindon's record in this respect needs no further comment. The effort needed to maintain the Farm and all its activities means that to live there is no sinecure. All who maintain it deserve support and encouragement.

An asset to Swindon
Letter from Christine Keable

I am devastated to learn of proposals to discontinue the lease on Lower Shaw Farm and to acquire the land for building purposes.

Whilst appreciating the role of any council in being thrifty and having to make the most of its assets, I wonder if those concerned with deciding the fate of Lower Shaw Farm realise just what an asset to Swindon this venture has been and still is, in terms that go beyond monetary value.

I am not from Swindon myself, but first visited the farm twenty years ago with my oldest daughter, then aged seven. We both learned to make and play musical instruments - a fantastic expreience for a child. But we also both benefitted from the contacts we made with other adults and families - and from the culture and ambience offered by living and entertaining ouselves simply and without the need to resort to TV, computer games and the like. My daughter loved the animals and the garden, and was keen to return on future occasions along with my two younger daughters. All of have learnt so much from our visits - we have undertaken a variety of courses where we have learnt skills that have served us well, and have met many interesting people.

Last year, for my sixtieth birthday, the girls gave me a present of a weekend at LSF, which delighted me and I attended a course on the medicinal uses of plants which was delivered with great enthusiasm by an extremely knowledgeable and highly qualified botanist. Much of the course was centred on the garden there, but we also roamed hidden and surprisingly rural corners of Swindon during the course of the weekend.

This brings me to a further reason for allowing the farm and its activities to remain. I know the residents and their contacts have done much for Swindon people, but you may not have realised how much they have opened the eyes of those not from Swindon to some of the benefits and attractions of the town.

Mention Swindon to most outsiders, and the reaction is mirth and scepticism that the town can possibly have anything to make a visit worthwhile! But our visits to LSF have meant that we have also been introduced to facilities such as the Oasis, the Link Centre, Lydiard Park, the Historic Monuments Record Centre and the designer shopping outlet centre. We love the farm, but would not have visited these other parts of Swindon as often as we have had it not been for our visits there. Swindon is also surrounded by beautiful countryside, which I have been fortunate enough to explore on walking weekends at LSF - another fact I would not otherwise been aware of.

I do hope that the council will bear these points in mind when considering renewal of the centre's lease. I'm sure we are not the only family to have derived so much from its activities. So many towns are becoming dull, boring and predictable. Why not be bold and imaginative and do your utmost to preserve such a unique and worthwhile asset - it's certainly a quirky and unusual place, but it's different. (And the food is fantastic, by the way!). I look forward to hearing that there is a future for Lower Shaw Farm, and that resources to cover the council's plans can be found elsewhere.

Don't close Lower Shaw Farm
Letter from Pascale Philippe, Parklands Road, Swindon

I have just been made aware of a project to close Lower Shaw Farm and want to express my concerns against such an idea.

I do understand that the value of the property is important in money, but what about the value of the work done at the farm for the benefit of the people of Swindon?

I have taken my children many times to visit and I have organised a visit with my group of Brownies (16th Swindon Brownies). They have all greatly enjoyed the time they spent being shown around the farm, the garden and the vegetables. They have collected eggs, picked some fruits and veg, brushed the pig, played all together, etc...

It would be a great loss to let this place disappear just to get a few more houses. There are a lot more building projects going around Swindon.

And what about the role of the farm during the literature festival, and all the workshops organised on the premises.

So please help us make our voices heard and don't close Lower Shaw Farm.

It is a place of fun, laughter, education and reflection for ALL
Letter from Anita March

I am very concerned about the lack of consultation that seems not to have happened on the closure of Lower Shaw Farm.

This is a place that fulfills lots of gaps that other Swindon services do not provide. It is a place of fun, laughter, education and reflection for ALL. We should not be closing down this farm; we should be encouraging it's use. Development rather than destruction of the farm should be looked at.

This is a Swindon resource that is not full filling it's potential because of some short sited Swindon councillors. Swindon has kept the heritage of the railway, so let's keep some good bits of countryside within our town. Bricks and mortar are boring. Being creative, learning new and old skills and learning how to look after our environment should be key aims of our council.

A three-acre treasure trove
Letter from Jo Tyabji

I'm a 20 year old student and I am very concerned about the council's refusal of a five year lease for Lower Shaw Farm in Swindon, for the first time in 26 years.

Lower Shaw Farm was once a dairy farm, but has become a three-acre treasure trove in the middle of 1980s urban Swindon. The care and imagination of those looking after it have cultivated a small paradise of horticulture, with organic kitchen and flower gardens, living willow structures, mountain sheep and hens, a wealth of native plants. The Hirsch-Holland family, together with a network of volunteers and helpers, local, national and international, run a plethora of workshops, meetings and courses, from family playdays to juggling workshops. The farm buildings have been converted into meeting rooms, trade and craft workshops and simple accommodation.

The Council have give the following reason for rejecting the 5 year lease: 'Even though we appreciate what you do there, the land is worth so much more than the rent you are paying that we would like to realise the cash value of this property. It is reckoned to be worth two to two and a half million pounds.'

This makes utterly clear that those within the Council who have taken this decision do not appreciate what happens at Lower Shaw Farm, and have not even begun to comprehend it. For a borough council to deprive its inhabitants of a place so enriching to the community for the 'cash value of this property' is a betrayal of all that councils should exist to do.

Swindon Borough Council should renew the five year lease, and actively support Lower Shaw Farm as an integral part of Swindon's cultural life. The annual Swindon book festival, which attracts renowned authors and people from Swindon and from far flung corners, is just one example of what Swindon will lose out on, and perhaps even more sadly, the constant run of activity days for children in the surrounding area.

From a very personal point of view, if Lower Shaw went, there would be little for me to come to Swindon for. At the moment, I look forward to volunteering there, taking part in the permaculture workshop I've wanted to do for ages, perhaps even learning to juggle. Swindon Borough Council needs to realise the true value of Lower Shaw Farm, or be locked in a vault with only two and a half million pounds to suck on.

It's quite unique
Letter from Heidi Rosental

I am very sorry to hear that Swindon council is wanting to develop the site at Lower Shaw Farm.

I have been a supporter and user for the past 30 years. The activities and the wonderful atmosphere that the community provides, is quite unique. I understand that in the 1980s it was decided by your Council to keep the farm in perpetuity. Maybe, because of its uniqueness, instead of using it for building land, the site could be suitably enhanced and sympathetically updated and continued to be used for community activities both residential and day use.

Although this would cost the Council extra money now, it could provide a very valuable resource in the education of young people and others in need, both able bodied and disabled, directing their energies into enjoyable and positive activities.

How can all this beauty be replaced with houses?
Letter from Tesni Beautyman, Age 9

I was absolutely horrified when I found out that Lower Shaw farm might be sold.

You might think of me as your average little nine-year-old who is only doing this because her mum forced her. Well she is not, this nine-year-old girl is doing this because Lower Shaw Farm needs saving!

I have been going since February 2005 and It's really good. It's actually nice to have a teeny tiny piece of countryside resemblance in the middle of Swindon but if the council let this go forward it MAY NOT HAPPEN. Think about the glorious wiltshire countryside. So dramatic... so beautiful. ...How can all this beauty be replaced with houses?

And also it depends on what will actually be built on Lower Shaw Farm because it'll only fit about three houses on the land and also where's the point in two schools right next to eachother unless they are infant and junior schools both made by the same people and they will be pretty small schools. Swindon has enough schools as it is.

Also, animals have been buried there, and you'd think they'd like to rest in peace, wouldn't you, not dug up from the ground and taken to landfill, left to rot!

We have ever such a lot of fun at Lower Shaw Farm and I say that from experience because just last Wednesday (25 October) I went there and I have been doing so for ages.

So Please, Please, Save Lower Shaw Farm and DO NOT let this happen!

Strange School Closures
Letter from Andy Torrance, Grange Park, of Swindon Parents for Choice

I note with sadness that Lower Shaw Farm faces closure because 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.? (Councillor Nick Martin, quoted).

I attended a meeting of the Schools Organisation Committee in July this year, petitioning against the proposed closure of the excellent and highly-regarded Windmill Hill Primary School. Having expressed my cynicism about how much influence parents, teachers and governors representations had on the process, which I described as linked to the need to fund other school build programmes, I was categorically told by Councillor Perkins that my childrens school was not being closed in order to sell its playing fields to fund any other school building programme:

Councillor Perkins clarified that the financial link to Toothill School no longer existed and that the new build for that school was a stand-alone project.

(See Para 6)

Provided with this encouraging information, the SOC subsequently endorsed the Councils plans to close Windmill Hill and build a new school on the Freshbrook site: a project which rumour amongst parents suggests is already in financial trouble.

How odd that this Council now sees the need to sell off other public assets that our children currently enjoy in order to fund its ambitious and unnecessary school building programme? If your editorials forecast is correct, it is stranger still that this expenditure is needed to close of one of the two primary schools servicing Grange Park and Freshbrook just in advance of an anticipated growth in Swindons population.

It is so pretty and peaceful
Letter from Vanessa Lafaye

I am writing as a regular user of Lower Shaw Farm's facilities to protest the Council's decision to sell the land for housing.

The Swindon Scratch Choir holds its fortnightly rehearsals at the Farm, and runs several important community events in conjunction with the Farm. The Christmas concert, held each year in the old barn, raises hundreds of pounds for charities benefiting the homeless of Swindon. This is a magical event, always well-attended by families.

The first time that I visited the farm, I could not believe that I was actually in Swindon. It is so pretty and peaceful. Matt and Andrea have made it into a centre for creativity and learning which is truly imaginative. Swindon has the image of an ugly modern town, a concrete hell surrounded by dreary suburbs. How is this image helped by demolishing a genuine amenity? There must be many other areas suitable for building houses which do not involve such short-sighted destruction.

It was my first introduction to wildlife
Letter from Al Bridges of Grange Park

To Coun Nick Martin, Coun Rod Bluh, Gavin Jones, Chief Executive at Swindon Borough Council.

Have you ever been there? It was my first introduction to wildlife when I was on a school trip aged 5.

It was my first introduction to literature aged 13.

It was my first introduction to juggling aged 23.

and it provided many introductions to all sorts of lovely people that pass through the farm.

Spend some time there, take your family. Then take your family on a lovely stroll around some new housing estate, see how your children are amazed as they look at house after house with matching garage doors and uniformed front gardens. Perhaps you and your wife can stop for 5 minutes, perch yourselves down onto the roadside and admire the view as cars drive right past your eyes, all the while feeling safe that your children are only on the other side of the busy road, themselves also enjoying the rapid-fire succession of diesel engine smoke spluttering into their joyous faces.

Then maybe consider revisiting the farm and spending just a little more time there.

Letter Title
Letter from RK Name and e-mail supplied

Long before I came to Swindon I had heard of Lower Shaw Farm. Now I've lived here for 15 years and as far as I'm concerned it's still really the only good thing about Swindon.

Okay I love Swindon and love living here, but what else stands out as exceptional and special? Perhaps the Swindon Festival of Literature.

Houses? I am seeing my quality of life ruined by houses on the Front Garden. Now this. What is the matter with Swindon? Does it really have to kowtow to the likes of Prescott and his specifications?

Lower Shaw Farm a beacon of hope
Letter from Rachel Semlyen of New York, USA, but also resident in York, Yorkshire, UK, and a visitor to Lower Shaw Farm for many years.

I am so very sad that the council is even contemplating the selling of this last part of rural England (and a wonderful ancient farmhouse) in the midst of Swindon's housing estates. What a way to pay back those hundreds of volunteers and dedicated residents whose only aim has been to improve the quality of life for Swindon people and indeed people of every race and creed who have visited from all corners of the British Isles. They regard Lower Shaw Farm as a beacon of hope, culture and all that is good and worth preserving: care for the young and old; development of hidden talents; enjoyment of self-created projects and entertainment; joy in natural things; untold benefits from staying or living in a community.. the Literature Festival .. what an asset to Swindon.... To say all this can carry on elsewhere.. what compensation or help would be given to the team that has built up the present organisation?? What they have created is priceless.. and there must be an alternative to closing it down so callously. Either fund it and appreciate it and help it develop for the benefit of Swindon or give them enough compensation to continue elsewhere.

It's terrific community facility
Letter from Anne Snelgrove, MP for South Swindon

Swindon Borough Council is a disgrace over the proposal to sell off Lower Shaw Farm for development.

I was at Lower Shaw farm recently. It's terrific community facility, where families can have fun and spend time together in a beautiful setting. It teaches children about the environment and enhances the quality of life for all who go there, especially the residents of West Swindon, who are fortunate to have this on their doorstep.

The council now admit that they messed up over West Swindon Schools, when they refused to listen to local parents and now they want to make residents pay for their mistake. It's a disgrace and absolutely outrageous behaviour. What makes it worse is that the Tories have been banging on about the environment and quality of life - clearly it doesn't mean a lot to them when they need money to sort out their mistakes.

The future of the Link Centre is uncertain, the Oasis will soon be closed and the Tories want to close Lower Shaw Farm - they are selling off the family silver in West Swindon to pay for their own incompetence.

Light, laughter and learning will, once again, be crushed by the bullying bulldozers.
Letter from Marcus Moore, Cirencester

Most visitors to Swindon find the town depressingly unattractive. I have spent many a bleak hour, for example, waiting in the Bus Station. It reminds me of Dante's Inferno.

Now, apparently, Swindon Borough Council is planning to knock down Lower Shaw Farm and sell the land. This will, of course, allow the council to make some money - and further line the pockets of those developers who have a proven track record in scarring the Wiltshire landscape.

Light, laughter and learning will, once again, be crushed by the bullying bulldozers.

We live in gloomy times. It seems we are led by those who will not cease from mental fight;

Nor shall their swords sleep in the hand; 'Til they have blitzed Lower Shaw Farm; From England's green and pleasant land.