ASHILFORD TRUST

In 1975 after several years of talking and sorting out ideas two of us finally worked out what we wanted to do.

We wanted to reduce our dependency on money and on the civilised world - it was the time of "Doomwatch" fears and "The Survivors". Yet we wanted a high standard of living whatever that means. We planned to grow our own food, produce our own power, make our own furniture, wine and craft-work. Yet we wanted cars, freezers, washing machines, cash for concerts and books, a swimming pool and tennis courts.

Our aims as we wrote them were:

• a home with a sense of belonging.
• To be as self-sufficient as we were able or as far as we wished.
• To reduce our dependency on money.
• To maintain our current standard of living.
• To create an improved environment for living and growing up.
• To gain from economies of scale: bulk buying, luxuries, tools and equipment shared.
• A chance to try experimental technical developments.
• A chance to try experimental social developments.
• A sound investment in land.
• To be able to farm.
• Security.

Finding the 4 - 8 people to form a co-operative we thought would be very easy. It wasn't. Wither the People we talked to got very excited over the ideas, talked long into many nights and then said "but we really couldn't sell our semi-" or they were extremists of one sort or another. Vegans, political missionaries, social "I am here to save the world" types, dreamers, idealists, and hardly a pound between them. It seems that, contrary to what on is led to believe in the alternative press, most people are happy enough in their ruts. Whether that rut is as an assistant deputy officer in a 4-bed detached or an eighteenth floor flat amidst a million others and sign on every week, they feel secure and deep down they don't want a change of life style.

We did, and eventually we discovered that some old friends had enough in common with us as far as aims were concerned, to join us. The four of us had 20,000 pounds, agricultural, teaching and secretarial skills and we reckoned that if we could find another couple with 10,000 pounds and horticultural abilities we would be able to start. We advertised in PSS and elsewhere and met some very interesting people as a result including a couple with 10,000 and horticultural abilities.

Nearly twelve months later we found Ashilford Farm. 97 acres, much of it steep and wooded, with a stream, a house just big enough for two families and barns suitable for conversion. It was fortunate that it took so long because it took that long to sort out the legal framework and raise the cash by selling houses.

We each had different amounts of capital and so we set up a Trust which actually owns the land. We each own shares in the Trust, the number of shares being calculated according to capital invested, earnings from outside, amount of work on the farm and a bit of what felt right at the time, and the deed was drawn up. The overall effect is that we each gain a fair appreciation on our money, yet the rate of increase in value of shares is the greatest for the smallest investment and least for the largest. (In 60 years we'd all be nearly equal). The business side is set up as a limited company but with no rules other than the legally necessary ones. We decided to work on trust, each to put in what he was able in terms of work and cash if an outside job was held. And we agreed that we would take out an equal sum of money each month for private use, and to take whatever food etc. we wanted. We reckoned that if there was enough food, there wouldn't be problems.

Surprisingly - after more than 2 years - we've had no serious disagreements over money, farming or food. It has all worked extremely well from a practical point of view. We gave ourselves problems by starting with a biggish mortgage, and by being over-ambitious about the farming profits, but they are problems that would solve themselves and they don't cause any loss of harmony or much loss of sleep.

Our real problems - three of them - are in retrospect so obvious and simple that they should never have arisen.

The first was that the couple who came in response to our advert were older and from a totally different background. They (or we!) just couldn't integrate enough to make things work. It was so sad because we all wanted so much for things to work with them but when you are living close to other people even the smallest things (the smell of their frying pan, the noise of someone else's kids) can become break-points.

Tom and his wife left after six months. The Trust framework was tested and it held up.

We proved that the arrangement could offer both security of investment and flexibility to leave at a few months' notice. And then there were four of us.

Continued