Basic structure
Apart from one woods, we do not own the site - we rent it from the owner. To do this we have set up two companies:
The housing side of the community is managed by a fully mutual housing co-op (Brithdir Mawr Housing Co-operative Ltd). All full community members are members of the co-op, and vice versa. This housing co-op rents the whole farm (houses and land) from our landlord, and then sublets the land to the limited company.
So, the 85 acres of land and all of the farming side are managed by a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee (Brithdir Mawr Community Enterprises ltd). Again all full members are members of the company, and vice versa.
We view these structures basically as a legal tool to help us manage our affairs and deal with the outside world.
Rent
We all pay rent (currently about £190 per month per adult, and £40 per month per child) to the housing co-op. This covers the rent that we pay to our landlord for the site, plus council tax, water, cost of maintaining the electricity system, telephone standing charge, fuel for cooking and heating, maintenance and food for communal meals.
We also all pay a monthly contribution to the company (currently about £12 per adult and £3 per child) which covers maintenance of the fences, agricultural buildings etc, care of the animals and the gardens, plus insurance for the farm.
We manage the land under various environmentally grant schemes and the money that we get for this makes up about half of company funds at the moment. Courses and sales of farm produce such as hay make up the rest. Long term, the farm will pay its own way.
Paying the rent
We all work part time either off site or in some cases on site at our own businesses to pay our rent. Anyone coming to the community needs to think about how they would earn a living. It is quite cheap to live here compared to living alone or as a couple, but you do still need an income, both to pay the rent and for your other day to day expenses.
Equally, be aware that community life and running an 85 acre farm takes up a lot of time and energy, which limits what is left for outside work. In practice we mostly work between 2-3 days per week at paid jobs.
There is work available in Newport and the surrounding area, but it is pretty limited in type and tends to be seasonal because of the tourist trade. Some of the jobs that current members do are: plumbing, electrical work, waitressing, shop work, woodworking, carving and seed growing.
Community work
The amount of work that we all do varies across the year. We all have different roles depending on what we are good at and what we enjoy doing. But equally, we are a small community and usually we do all end up helping out a bit with most things. So, members are expected to contribute a certain number of hours community work each week as well as their rent.
As a guideline we commit to do 18 hours community work per week, of which 2 are general cleaning and tidying. We tend to spend Wednesdays working together, plus having our main community meeting. Apart from this, we do our work around the community as and when it needs doing & fits in with the rest of our lives.
It is worth pointing out that the life of the community and the farm is central here, and unless you really like outside work, whether wooding, animals, gardening or whatever, you are unlikely to enjoy being here. Some of the things that we do include: fencing, coppicing, gardening, haymaking, cooking communal meals, cleaning, milking, cheesemaking, childcare, making the baler and the tractor work, painting, doing the accounts, looking after the compost toilet.
This does mean that it is impossible to have a full-time job while living here.
Eating together
We eat together around 3 evenings a week, sometimes more. Meals are vegetarian, based as far as possible on our own produce, and often include milk, cheese and eggs from our goats and chickens.
We do not raise animals specifically for meat. We do very occasionally eat meat produced on site (cockerels/male kids) at communal meals, but only with pre-agreement of vegetarian members.
Meetings
We have a work meeting once a week, for 2 hours on a Wednesday usually in the afternoon. This covers the basic day to day practical stuff. Trial members usually take part in this meeting.
We also have occasional 'feelings meetings' if necessary to share how we are all getting on and sometimes to deal with problems between members of the group.
We also have extra meetings as necessary to deal with particular issues that are too long or complex for the Wednesday meeting. We make decisions by consensus, and if we cannot reach agreement in a meeting then we continue to work on an issue until we get to a solution that we can all live with.
Joining the community
We are looking for people who are committed enough to see Brithdir Mawr Community as their career, who bring a spirit of compromise which is necessary when living in such close quarters for others, and for our consensus decision making process. Joining the community is quite a slow process as we all need to be certain (potential and current members!) that we are going to be happy living with each other.
People interested in joining usually come for a short visit of a few days to a week at first, just to get a feel for the place. If we all get along and you like it here, you would then come back for one or more longer visits, maybe a week or two each time, or perhaps longer depending on your circumstances. If after these visits you are still interested and we have a suitable space available, then we may invite you to come and live at Brithdir as a trial member.
Trial membership lasts for a year, with regular reviews (at 1 month, 3 months and 6 months) to see how things are going. If all goes well, at the end of the year you then become a full member. If we don't have a suitable space for you, just keep on visiting and get to know us better, and then when there is a place available, you will have a better idea of whether it is likely to be right for you.
We are currently looking in particular for younger members (under 35) with an interest in working the land.
Pets
We don't have such strict rules about pets as some communities, but please let us know right at the start if you have pets that you would want to bring with you.
In particular, we have rule of not more than 3 resident dogs here at any one time , and also any dogs that are here must be reliably safe with free-ranging ducks, chickens, sheep, other farm animals, small children and other visitors.