Lower Shaw Farm - Reader Letters 2
Reactions sent to SwindonLink.com
November 2006

Lower Shaw Farm - Reflections from a first time visitor
Letter from Kevin Fisher, West Swindon

When I heard of the proposal to sell off Lower Shaw farm for housing, my immediate reaction was one of dismay. Yet, at that point I had never visited the Farm. So why was I dismayed? Simple, I read the informative reports run by the Swindon Link and Evening Advertiser, and concluded that there seemed to be no logic to destroy such an outstanding community facility that has no cost to the council tax payer.

My wife and I decided to ensure my dismay was well founded and not simply based on media hype. To this end, we visited the Farm on Sunday 29 October. We were greeted by Matt Holland as he hosted about 50 people using the facility for an "autumn weekend".

My first impression was one of eye opening wonder. All around us were people with big smiles on their faces as they prepared vegetables fresh from the Farms gardens, heated soup over an open fire and prepared a home made mud and straw oven for the baking of home made bread and pizza. I noted a broad range of people, ranging from very young, through teenage through adult. All of them participating in what looked like an integrated community of people working together to produce food and entertainment for their own consumption and enjoyment.

Contrary to some people's beliefs, these were not "hippies" (and I mean no disrespect in that term) sat around camp fires strumming guitars. These were ordinary people from all walks of life enjoying the wonders of nature while learning how to produce food and entertain without the need for over packaged, sterile vegetables from the local supermarket, fly on the wall TV "entertainment", or impossibly polished all inclusive, all you can eat, holidays.

We introduced ourselves to Matt and explained the purpose of our visit. His response right from the first eye contact was one of warmth and openness. He stopped what he was doing, and proceeded to spend nearly an hour showing us around the Farm. His emphasis was on the sustainability and educational value of the lifestyle and service he provides. He did this not just by showing us the substantial organic vegetable garden and orchard, but by showing us how so many household objects, normally destined for a land fill, have been re-used or adapted for use on the Farm.

It reminded me of my father's generation where we had the skills and incentives (now sadly lost) to re-use objects rather than discard them (yes there is a big positive environmental benefit to re-use vs re-cycle). I do not plan to tell you all the features of this oasis in Swindon's cultural desert, since I cannot do them justice unless I write a book. Also, in so doing it may stop you from finding out for yourselves. Please I encourage you - visit the farm, it is truly a wonderful place.

We live in a world where everything is pre-packaged and polished, food, entertainment, holidays, everything. Nearly all of us have a lifestyle that is un-sustainable. Global warming is real and our governments are struggling to find the right solutions. Our children believe carrots come from Sainsbury's and a majority of the population, young and old, would not be able to recognise and name different root vegetables unless they were pre-packaged and labelled.

Our local council finds the only way to enforce the population to re-cycling its waste is to limit the collection of household rubbish. Industries through glossy advertising continually indoctrinate us all to consume more and more. Family life has changed beyond all recognition. We no longer eat together as families, our teenagers spend less and less of their time with their parents and interactive entertainment today means "pressing the red button" on the remote control.

Of course Lower Shaw Farm will not stop global warming, though it will help us understand the role we must all play. However, it does offer practical and enjoyable, hands on educational solutions to all the other problems I note above. It truly is a beacon of everything that could be right with our world.

How, particularly in these times of critical concerns for our environment, our councillors can consider the destruction of such an inspirational source of sustainable living and education, simply to solve a one off financial black hole (created by those who wish to destroy the Farm), is beyond me?

My wife and I walked away from Lower Shaw farm. I had genuine tears in my eyes.

The best is yet to come at Lower Shaw Farm
Letter from Frances Bevan, West Swindon

I live in Middleleaze and would argue with Coun. Nick Martin that Lower Shaw Farm has outlived its usefulness and that "we don't really need it any longer."

These are some of the things my family has enjoyed at Lower Shaw Farm:- played in the barn on the rope swing; cooked bread in the farmhouse kitchen; spun honey; looked for frogspawn in the ponds; played parachute games on the lawn; watched a shadow puppet show in the hayloft; collected eggs from the henhouse; washed a sheep's fleece and woven the wool; made vegetable soup and drank it round a camp fire; listened to a story teller; tried their hand at juggling and their feet on a unicycle; watched fireworks; sung Christmas songs; listened to African drumming; picked fruit in the garden and planted vegetables in the polytunnel; met children and adults from all walks of life and all over the world.

My husband, founder member of Survivors Swindon, has used the centre for a weekend retreat while I have been on a number of writer's workshops there. I have written a Victorian local history project focused on the farm for the children at Brook Field School and am now writing a history of the farm and the people who have lived and worked there.

This is just my family's experience - I would argue that far from being redundant, the best is yet to come at Lower Shaw Farm.

One of the great attractions of the area
Letter from David Gourley from West Swindon

A comment on the quote from the article on Lower Shaw Farm in Swindon Link magazine which has been included on the site.

Councillor Nick Martin, Swindon cabinet lead member for finance, is quoted 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 Primary School."

I'm a parent at Shaw Ridge Primary School, and attended the consultation meeting almost 2 years ago on the topic of the West Swindon school plans. I have a very clear memory that Councillor Martin made a flippant throwaway comment about part of the provision possibly rerouting Cartwright Drive and increasing parking provision for Brookfield School as one of the options under consideration at that point (since LSF was council property).

This suggests that the sale of LSF was being considered from very early in the West Swindon education reorganisation, rather than (as implied) only when the costs started to mount up on the scheme. In particular, one of the local Conservative councillors was making quite a big deal about his environmental credentials when canvassing so it would be enlightening to find out the views of the local ward councillors on this proposed sale....

When we first moved to Swindon, one of the great attractions of the area for my (then) 4-year old son was to be able to go and peer through the fence at the pigs and ducks.. originally coming from a rural area, this didn't seem like a big deal to me but on reflection not that many children in densely populated urban environments get this opportunity and it seems a real shame to lose it.

If there's a real need to find sites for additional housing, there seems to be no shortage of empty warehousing around Swindon, some of which is not in particularly attractive locations for business due to poor positioning for transport links - surely this land could be re-zoned if necessary (but whoops - of course it's not owned by the council).

Worth far more than two and a half million pounds
Letter from Gill Powell from Birmingham

What a joy to discover the oasis that is Lower Shaw Farm when I lived near Swindon. And even though I’ve lived in Birmingham for five years now, I’ve returned – although not often enough – for their fabulous courses. When friends have mocked Swindon for its lack of arts and culture, I’ve sent them down Old Shaw Lane and they have soon changed their minds and returned independently to enjoy the magic that goes on there.

Thousands of new houses are being built – and can be built – all over the county. What Swindon is lucky enough to have down on the farm is truly magical. It’s a place of learning and nurturing. Destroy Lower Shaw Farm and you are losing an invaluable cultural asset in Wiltshire. Please don’t. It’s worth far more than two and a half million pounds.

A unique and historic landmark
Letter from Kathy Shaw

I was saddened to learn that Swindon Council are unlikely to extend the 5 year lease for Lower Shaw Farm. I believe this will be a irreparable loss for the Swindon Community. Lower Shaw Farm is a unique and historic landmark with its educational and ecological programme.

In 1980 I became a resident volunteer at Lower Shaw Farm, a refugee from the London rat race. I was keen to help with the garden and creative events. At the time Lower Shaw was a hamlet surrounded by fields and hedges filled with blackberries, well outside Swindon town. At night the unlit lanes were pitch black and it was a delight for the town visitors to witness skies thick with stars and meteor showers.

When I returned in 1982, Swindon's development had engulfed the farm with industrial and housing estates. The fields had vanished and the street lights cast an orange glow. The 300 year old farmhouse, its gardens and outbuildings, stood out as a reminder of the rural landscape and it's history, still providing a peaceful haven and meeting place for visitors from near and far.

The Lower Shaw Farm residents have consistently and energetically maintained their commitment to the Swindon community with an imaginative and affordable programme of activities and events.

In London there is a constant battle to maintain facilities for residents, too often isolated on bleak estates. It is too easy for councils to bow to financial pressures for short term profit. As reports emerge showing up the devastating effect of our policies on the planet, it would be a great pity if Swindon allowed a short sighted decision to blight and depress it's own environment. Support and appreciation for this wonderful resource could continue to offer an invaluable asset for Swindon's population with ongoing dividends for all its visitors.

I hope the Council will decide to support Lower Shaw Farm into 'perpetuity' and honour its Council's farsighted pledge in the 1980's.

What a great place to have on your doorstep!
Letter from Sarah Drummond, from Leicester (a former West Swindon pupil)

I am writing with tears in my eyes at the prospect of Lower Shaw Farm closing down. It is an amazing place, and a place where I spent much of the first seven years of my life, where I learned about love, friendship, art, cooking, animals, growing your own food, making badges and so much

I am currently a third year student at De Montfort University in Leicester and am studying BA (Hons) Dance and Theatre. I believe Lower Shaw Farm set me on my way of creative, sensible, different and interesting ways of thinking.

There is the suggestion of using Lydiard Park as an alternative venue, but I am sure that this would not be the same as Lower Shaw Farm. LSF is a home, a place of family, somewhere for whole families to go and make friends as well as seeing animals and plants grow, cook and attend workshops.

I used to go to the farm as part of playscheme, and this is an important factor for your consideration. Lydiard Park is not within walking distance for primary school children in the Shaw area, whereas LSF is. When I lived in Swindon there was four times the national average birth rate, and Brookfield Primary School, which I attended, not only was given classes by people who lived at LSF, but was populated by children who lived there and Brookfield pupils went to LSF on visits.

What a great place to have on your doorstep! Swindon was a brilliant place to live as a child as a lot was being built with children in mind, so the parks were plentiful and well thought out. Parks are not the only places for children though, and LSF is not just a place for children, but for adults too.

Please continue the lease for LSF so West Swindon continues to have a heart.

To close LSF would be to destroy what so many people have recognised as a beacon of the spirit
Letter from Chris and Diana Eddy of Old Town

We support the campaign to preserve Lower Shaw Farm as an educational activities centre. Our reasons: (1) For many years LSF has been and continues to be extremely well-used by people from the Swindon area and is therefore obviously valued very highly by them. The fact that there are other places, i.e. Lydiard Park, which are also well-used does not mean that LSF is dispensable.

LSF has unique features which people value intrinsically and which are as much to do with the personal qualities of those who run it as with whatever is conveyed by a mere listing of the activities they provide.

An analogy might help to explain this point: consider the difference for for a homeless child between (a) being accepted into their home by a family committed to fostering and (b) being cared for by professionals in a local authority home: the family situation is clearly preferable, but the significant difference cannot be expressed by listing the activities provided in each situation.

(2) In the national media Swindon has been a by-word for crass materialism and the cultural desert, and the deep unfairness of this caricature does not alter the fact that Swindon has what is called an "image problem"; but LSF is one of the features a Swindonian might point to to show that this what-you-see-is-what-you-get town has a soul.

People visit LSF from places not only across the country, but across the world, and return again and again. This means that LSF is valuable not merely for the use-value of its listable activities, but also as one of the things that puts Swindon on the map as a cultural value nationally and internationally.

To close LSF would be to destroy what so many people have recognised as a beacon of the spirit, and thereby to confirm the worst of the prejudices that Swindon's detractors hold against the town.

(3) If the phrase "Investing In People" is to be more than a piece of commercial hype, it ought to recognise the value to our town not just of "people", i.e., more or less interchangeable job-holders, but of actual persons, particularly named individuals, who have something to offer that arises from the unique sets of experiences, skills, aspirations and insights that they bring with them.

We think Swindon would do well to invest in two particular people, Matt Holland and Andrea Hirsch, who have shown over the years a quite exceptional capacity for creating contexts in which all sorts of individuals can grow and thrive, and Swindon can best do this by renewing the lease of LSF for as long as the two of them are still willing and able to provide the kind of value for the town that they uniquely do.

LSF is a beacon of light
Letter from Kevin & Anne Riley and Family, Selby, North Yorks

We learn with a strange mixture of disbelief, annoyance and sadness that our great National treasure, which you know locally as Lower Shaw Farm, is to be auctioned off for development in 2007.

We would like to remind all the movers and shakers of Swindon that, for many of us, both far and near, LSF is a beacon of light in an of times dark and dreary world.

Our experience of LSF over the years has offered us much that is both rich and varied:

It sustains our dwindling sense of family and community

It is a resting place, a safe haven, for weary hearts and minds

It inspires us all to call for change in a faltering and blinkered world

It wipes away our frowns and paints on big wide smiles

It feeds our souls with kindly words

It fills our bellies with wholesome food

It nurtures the soil and manifests a deep respect for the planet

Maybe you don’t all know it down there ‘cos sometimes, when things are standing in front of you, you can’t always see them clearly….but from up here in Yorkshire LSF is your unsung Angel Of The South.

Please do ‘all you can possibly do’ to ensure the continued survival of LSF. The work it does and the hope it symbolises are both immeasurable and irreplaceable. So do your very best ( and more!) to turn the tide for LSF and all who sail with and in her.

In the well known words of the song :-

“Don’t it always seem to go

That you don’t know what you’ve got

Till it’s gone……..

They paved Paradise

And put up a parking lot”

How sad and revealing that there is no value put on the cultural, community and environmental benefits!
Letter from Norman Butler, Westlea

I really find it revealing that, to quote Nick Martin "we can generate about £2 million from redevelopment of the farmhouse and the land".

I would make two observations: who are the "we"? and how sad and revealing that there is no value put on the cultural, community and environmental benefits to offset against this £2 million.

I have a young daughter who I sincerely hope will grow up to appreciate and value her environment and be able to appreciate how privileged she is to have a place such as Lower Shaw Farm so close to where she lives. Lower Shaw Farm is a symbol (beacon even) of what we should hold dear as communities, as carers of the world in which we live and a diverse town.

If it goes what example are we setting for future generations?

An established and expertly run resource
Letter from Sheila Head

I am writing to express my dismay at the news that Swindon Council is considering closing Lower Shaw Farm. In my view, the farm is a valuable resource that the council should showcase and develop, instead of threatening it with closure.

LSF activities so clearly tick many council boxes - community cohesive activities for all Swindon residents and particular activities for people with disabilities, for lower income families, single parent families, school parties and many other groups of people.

The farm uniquely provides a 'City Farm' role far beyond any city farm that I know of: organic food production education, healthy eating education, animal welfare education, not to mention the many creative courses and activities available for the people of Swindon that take place there for the 'socially cohesive' shared pleasure of doing it with other people.

This is an established and expertly run resource that provides enormous social and environmental capital at low cost to Swindon Council. It should be promoted wtihin the council as a resource for more council funded activities and not closed, particularly not without extensive consultation of the voting public.