Lammas Eco Village
By Harvey Williams-Fairley
Have you ever wondered..
...what a low impac
ct lifestyle really looks like?
Dr. Jenny Pickerill author of the Low-Impact Communities in Britain defines the Low-Impact lifestyle and Low-Impact communities as; Those who wish to seek autonomy and self-reliance, and thus to seek to generate all they need, who often have mixed goals but tend to include to become more socially, economically and ecologically sustainable. With the ethos of self-build and do-it-yourself with low cost and often build affordably for perpetuity into the long term design, seeking minimal resources, maintaining a low visual impact, built from local, recycled or natural materials and on a small scale. The Lammas project was started in 2009, when the welsh government granted the Eco-village planning permission to start operations. The Eco-Village has been created to show the world an alternative living model with the main ethosn of being able to live from the land. Lammas Eco-Village allows its residents to embrace the low impact lifestyle, and demonstrates the use of pioneering technologies that are the greener alternative, and more importantly are here and now. Lammas combines the traditional small holding model with green technologies, permaculture and innovative design that is environmentally concerned. The Eco-Village is situated near Glandwr in Peambrokeshire, Wales. The village is situated on 175 acres worth of land. Currently nine small holdings are on the land that are all built from local sustainable materials, such as straw bale round houses, timber framed houses, earth houses built using round wood, earth and stone, straw bales and reclaimed materials. Residents are also required to generate 75% of their livelihood from the land and have seized this opportunity to create business from their land.
Many of the residents keep livestock on their land, ranging from geese, ducks and chickens to cows and sheep. This is an efficient way the resident’s are able to generate a livelihood from their land, which contributes to the 75% of they are required to maintain as by-products of the animals are used towards food, fertiliser and products are even made from things such as the sheep wool. Toa and Hoppi Wimbush have cows amongst many other animals. Toa milks his cow’s daily, which provides his family with more than enough than enough milk, the remainder Toa shares with the rest of the residents. Sharing, buying and selling are common traits amongst the residents of Lammas, and is harmonious with their livelihood requirements.
An income can also be earned from the land, and many of the residents have seized this opportunity and have invested time into creating individual businesses. The money earned from these businesses is also an element that contributes to maintaining a livelihood from the land. Melissa Stephens has made a small business selling many of the products she is able to make from her beehives. These products include wax polish, candles, honey and mouthwash made from beeswax tincture. Melissa also does much work with willow, creating baskets and sculptures. Hoppi’s passion lies in growing flowers and herbs, which are then used in formulations to create organic botanical skin products. So far Hoppi has been successful in her operations, selling her home made products in small retail outlets and even has an online presence – Flower Power Organics.
Lammas Eco-Village is completely self sufficient in terms of electricity and water, most of the electricity use by the residents is created by a hydro generator. The hydro generator is situated at the bottom of a stream. Water enters the generator at an extremely high pressure and forces it’s way through a turbine, this in turn causes the turbine to spin and also causes an electromagnet to spin creating an electromagnetic current inside. Almost 200,000 kw/h is generated from the hydro generator alone, which is enough to power 50 houses for a year. Residents also use solar panels and wind turbines to generate electricity for their individual small holdings.
Many of the residents are self-taught in their craftsmanship, and have built their own homes from the ground up. Almost all of the houses are made from responsibly sourced materials, including wood, stone, earth and even straw bales. The building techniques used by the residents have been perfected over generations and are even used worldwide. They are extremely structurally sound methods of building houses, they are low cost and most importantly that are environmentally friendly. If the houses were left to decompose, they would do so in a way that has very little effect of the environment and there would be an extremely minimal amount of materials, if any that wouldn’t decompose.
All of the residents take time to grow their own crops, this is one of the most crucial requirements of living within the rules of the low impact lifestyle, and makes up a massive portion of the 75% livelihood requirements.
There is a great sense of community spirit within the village of Lammas, on occasions the residents will use the communal building known as the Hub for social events such as jams, pub nights and even yoga. This social aspect is really important for the residents, as it becomes an opportunity for members of the surrounding community to be invited to the Eco-Village, and for the residents to form relationships with their neighbours.
The residents of Lammas are extremely open and inviting people. The opportunity is available to those who are curious about cultivation, sustainability and living from the land. Being able to stay with a family, spending time volunteering and being educated about a low-impact lifestyle.