Birchwood Hall Community
Birchwood Hall is a large 19th century red brick house near the Malvern Hills. Within our eight acres we have woodlands, a large vegetable garden, orchard, volleyball court and lawns. A converted Coach House is home to an additional five co-op members. There is also a small residential centre operated by the community called "Anybody’s Barn", a registered charity.
The community currently comprises ten adults and one teenager, but one person is here on a temporary basis and will move on at some point soon. A number of us have grown-up children (some of whom grew up at Birchwood!) who visit from time to time.
Most community members have some form of paid employment. Current occupations include: architect, driving instructor/photographer, teacher, sports administrator, artist, volunteer organiser and creator of virtual reality museum guide programmes. A focal point of community life is our daily shared evening meal. We also have weekly meetings where we discuss practical and business issues, exchange ideas and sometimes even try to have fun! We have recently set up a community cinema in one of our larger rooms, mostly for our own benefit; but we plan to have occasional showings to the wider community.
Everyone pays a weekly rent, partly adjusted to reflect income and circumstances; we income-share to that extent. Rents include contributions to a fund we call "Other than Ourselves", which we allocate annually to charities and causes.
We live communally because this meets many of our personal and political needs and beliefs. We do not try to be self-sufficient although a number of us enjoy growing organic vegetables. We have a broad sympathy for many green and feminist ideas and causes and we try to lead an ecologically responsible lifestyle.
Because most of us work outside the community and some of us lead very busy lives, members need to be fairly self-sufficient. We are good at providing support in time of need -- but not necessarily on an everyday basis!
