Are self-sufficient rural communities an idea whose time has come? A few years ago, councils and neighbours tended to write them off as hippies. Now attitudes are changing
In an idyllic corner of the south Somerset countryside, blackbirds chirrup, cart horses swish their tails and a restless wind susurrates through the boughs of a stand of Douglas firs as a cheery band of twenty-to-fiftysomethings pitch in to gather the hay. But for the reusable water bottles and walking boots, they might be characters in an English pastoral, bowed over their rural labours. “When I came here from Brighton I was surprised by how loud it was,” says Meg Willoughby, 28, a resident of Tinkers Bubble. “I had this idea of the peaceful woodland from fairytales, but farm animals are noisy, and when a hill wind blows through firs they make a crazy cracking sound. Nature is wild, isn’t it?”
Founded in 1994, Tinkers Bubble is England’s leading off-grid woodland community: an experiment in rural living that provides low-impact dwellings and a land-based livelihood to a changing roster of 16 residents. In April, it was granted permanent planning permission by South Somerset council, an achievement heralded as a landmark in off-grid communities’ long attempts to be accepted by mainstream Britain (and its planning department mandarins). They celebrated this success in May with song and home-brewed cider. “Though we’re not big drinkers,” Willoughby says, laughing. “We’re usually back in our cabins with a book by 8pm.”
